AGREEMENT  OF 


SAMUEL  L.  PHILLIPS 


GIFT   OF 


fiU.cc^/X^t,c4^^.*M^^Ji^  Tr^C^c^^je^^ 


CompllmtRts  of 
S.  L.  PHILLIPS, 

330John  Marshall  Place, 
Washington,  D.  C. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/agreementofevoluOOphilrich 


Agreement 

of 

Evolution  and  Christianity 


Agreement  of 
Evolution  &  Christianity 


By 
Samuel   Louis   Phillips 

(J.B.y  Princeton) 
Author  of  «*The  Testimony  of  Reason,"  etc. 


',     ,     »o'     » 


Washington,  D.C. 
The  Phillips  Company 

330  John  Marshall  Place 
1904 


Pr 


Copyright,  igo4 
By  Samuel  L.  Phillips 


THE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS,    CAMBRIDGE,    U.  S.  A. 


Preface 

THE  underlying  purpose  of  this  treatise  is 
to  advance  Christianity  by  showing  it  to 
be  a  phase  of  the  great  law  of  Evolution  appli- 
cable to  the  development  of  the  moral  nature 
of  man,  and  incidentally  to  his  physical  and 
mental  advancement ;  and  ranking  in  its  sphere 
of  influence  as  importantly  as  the  physical 
adaptation  of  organisms  to  their  environment, 
or  the  transmission  of  acquired  characteristics 
to  progeny. 

It  is  addressed: 

1.  To  those  adherents  of  the  doctrine  of  Evo- 
lution who  reject  Christianity  because  of  its 
supposed  inconsistency  with  their  theory. 

2.  To  those  who  have  professed  Christianity, 
and  yet  are  fearful  its  foundations  are  being 
battered  from  under  it  by  the  assaults  of  those 
scientists  who  declare  that  the  ascertained  facts 
of  Nature  have  disproved  the  truthfulness  of 
the  Divine  record  of  creation.  To  such,  this 
book,  it  is  hoped,  will  be  a  comfort,  by  showing 

,[v] 

411439 


Preface 

there  is  not  only  no  antagonism  between  the 
latest  discoveries  of  Evolutionary  Science  and 
the  Mosaic  account  of  creation,  but  so  wonder- 
ful an  agreement  actually  exists  between  the 
theory  of  Evolution,  as  expounded  by  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer,  Professors  Huxley,  Haeckel, 
and  other  eminent  advocates  of  the  doctrine, 
and  the  order  of  creation  in  Genesis,  that,  if  no 
other  proof  existed  except  this  narrative,  its 
extraordinary  congruity  with  the  facts  of  science 
accepted  in  the  twentieth  century  would  be 
adequate  to  establish  a  strong  probability  that 
the  scriptural  record  of  creation  was  of  Divine 
origin. 

3.  To  those  Christians  who  are  perplexed  by 
the  absence  of  plenary  and  convincing  revela- 
tion of  the  nature  of  God,  of  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  of  rewards 
and  punishments  in  the  future  life,  and  other 
fundamental  articles  of  the  Christian  faith.  It 
is  believed  a  careful  perusal  of  the  second  part 
of  this  book  —  wherein  it  is  shown  Christianity 
is  a  great  law  of  Evolution  for  the  development 
of  the  soul,  analogous  in  every  important  par- 
ticular to  the  laws  of  Physical  Evolution — will 
convince  the  impartial  reader  that  if  more  knowl- 
edge of  the  above  truths  had  been  vouchsafed 
spiritual  evolution  would  have  been  impeded  in 
[vi] 


Preface 

exact  proportion ;  and  that  if  absolute  certainty 
of  the  Godhead,  and  of  the  Saviour  of  mankind, 
and  of  immortality,  etc.,  had  been  enforced  by 
full  knowledge  no  growth  in  moral  excellence 
would  have  taken  place.  To  be  convinced  by  a 
line  of  correct  human  reasoning  that  revelation 
is  just  what  it  should  be  —  neither  too  full  nor 
too  scant — will  bring  much  satisfaction  to  many 
devout  hearts,  increase  their  faith,  inspire  zeal 
in  the  work  of  and  love  for  their  Master,  and 
cause  them  to  look  down  upon  the  assaults  of 
agnostic  scientists  and  unfriendly  atheists  as 
little  more  than  ripples  on  the  surface  of  a 
pool  of  water,  fretting  themselves  against  the 
side  of  the  mountainous  and  eternal  rock  of 
Christianity. 


[vii] 


Contents 

PART  I. 

Page 

V  Theology  and  Evolution i 

The  Doctrine  of  Evolution 6 

Agencies  of  Evolution lo 

Limitations  of  Evolution 20 

Agreement  of  Evolution  and   the  Mosaic 

Narrative  of  the  Creation 29 

Special  Creations  or  Evolution      ....  55 

t-  Evolution  and  Man 82 

Evolution  and  Mentality    .    ^ 84 

V  Evolution  and  the  Soul 95 

PART  II. 

L.  Evolutionary  Character  of  Christianity  .  105 

USouL  Evolution no 

The  Holy  Scriptures 116 

God 122 

Christ  a  Factor  of  Soul  Evolution    .     .     .  128 

The  Holy  Ghost 136 

u  Immortality  of  the  Soul 140 

w  Reward  and  Punishment 145 

[ix] 


Contents 

Page 

►      Free  Will 150 

U    Faith 156 

Good  Works 163 

Atonement  for  Sin 170 

Evidences  of  Christianity 174 

The  Church  of  Christ 180 

The  Sacraments 182 

Christianity  an  Aid  to  Physical  and  Men- 
tal Evolution 186 

Missions 190 

The  Future  of  Christianity 193 

»^Conclusion 195 

The  Testimony  of  Reason 199 


[x] 


Agreement  of 
Evolution  and  Christianity 

Part   I 

THEOLOGY  AND   EVOLUTION 

THE  scientific  world  is  almost  universally 
of  opinion  that  life  has  an  inherent 
quality  which  enables  it  to  adapt  itself  more 
or  less  perfectly  to  environment,  and  to  trans- 
mit acquired  characteristics  to  progeny. 

What  is  here  understood  by  the  scientific 
world,  is  that  body  of  men  of  trained  minds  and 
observation  which  has  investigated  the  phe- 
nomena of  life  for  the  express  purpose  of  arriv- 
ing at  truth  in  regard  to  its  development. 
When  there  is  great  unanimity  among  such 
students  upon  any  subject  after  adequate  inves- 
tigation, which  is  certainly  the  case  as  to  Evolu- 
tion, there  is,  a  priori^  strong  probability  of  the 
correctness  of  their  conclusions.  And  no  class 
of  men,  — for  example,  theologians,  —  who  have 
not  given  the  subject  the  same  careful  attention, 

[I] 


'  Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

under  equally  favorable  circumstances  for  obser- 
vation, as  scientists  have  done,  should  contradict 
their  legitimate  deductions,  as  far  as  founded 
on  facts,  unless  they  have  other  facts  equally 
well  proven  with  which  to  refute  them.  Mere 
theories  springing  from  preconceived  notions  or 
predilections,  and  crude  ideas  based  on  conjec- 
ture and  not  on  rigorous  exploration,  cannot 
withstand,  in  this  accurate  scientific  age,  the 
assault  of  intelligent  generalization  formulated 
from  ascertained  facts. 

Instead  of  the  advocates  of  the  Christian 
religion  being  disturbed  by  the  theory  of  Evo- 
lution as  expounded  by  scientists,  or  denying 
its  truthfulness,  they  should,  believing  their 
creed  is  the  revelation  of  the  Most  High  and 
consequently  must  be  harmonious  with  nature, 
investigate  their  God-given  faith  for  the  purpose 
of  ascertaining  whether  any  real  antagonism 
exists  between  it  and  the  doctrine  of  Evolution. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  subject,  scientists, 
who  are  as  ardent  pursuers  of  truth  as  men 
know  how  to  be,  should  pause  in  their  rejection 
or  disregard  of  a  religion  which  they  generally 
do  not  understand,  or  of  the  philosophy  of 
whose  tenets  they  have  only  a  superficial  im- 
pression, until  they  have  subjected  its  funda- 
mental principles  to  an  accurate  examination, 
and  have  determined  beyond  reasonable  doubt 
that  they  are  opposed  to  known  facts  and  laws 

[2] 


Theology  and  Evolution 

to  such  an  extent,  they  cannot  be  true.  Such 
an  examination  is  particularly  incumbent  upon 
men  who  spend  their  lives  in  the  investigation 
of  facts,  and  who  claim  belief  should  be  based 
only  on  knowledge.  To  condemn  the  Christian 
religion  without  an  accurate  and  logical  ex- 
amination is  unscientific,  and  is  a  denial  to  it  of 
what  they  profess  and  claim  should  be  granted 
to  their  own  subject  of  inquiry. 

Nor  is  Christianity  to  be  disposed  of  by  ad 
captandum  replies  that  its  supernatural  claims 
are  so  absurd  as  not  to  be  deemed  worthy  of 
serious  consideration.  Any  scientist  who  makes 
such  a  charge  is  eminently  unscientific  in  mental 
poise,  and  unworthy  of  the  guild  in  which  he 
seeks  to  include  himself  as  a  member,  because 
the  Christian  religion  has  claimed  and  still 
possesses  as  its  devoted  adherents  millions  of 
men  whose  mental  capacity,  general  intelligence, 
and  devotion  to  truth  are  equal  in  all  respects 
to  such  denying  scientists;  and  because  the 
civilization  of  the  world  at  this  time,  whereof 
such  scientists  are  blessed  participators,  is  due 
more  largely  to  the  peace  and  the  humanizing 
influences  wrought  by  Christianity  than  to  all 
other  causes. 

At  no  era  of  the  world's  history  has  it  been 
more  important  than  the  present  for  theologians 
and  scientists  to  extend  their  investigations 
reciprocally  into  the  sphere  of  the  other.     Evil 

r3] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

often  results  from  ignorance,  nothing  but  benefit 
can  follow  from  a  knowledge  of  truth.  These 
two  great  fields  for  research  and  belief  should 
not  be  separated  by  insuperable  barriers.  If 
Evolution  be  a  law  of  nature,  there  is  no  reason 
the  Christian  should  not  be  an  evolutionist  and 
the  evolutionist  a  Christian.  They  are  both 
workers  in  the  domains  of  nature  made  by  one 
and  the  same  divine  Creator.  They  cannot  be 
antagonistic,  but  must  be  harmonious  ;  more 
yet,  each  pursuit  broadens  and  ennobles  the 
other.  The  Christian  scientist  is  the  more  per- 
fect Christian  and  the  more  perfect  scientist. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  attempt  to 
show  in  the  following  pages  that  not  only  no 
contradiction  exists  between  Christianity  and 
Evolution,  but  the   most  extraordinary  accord 

—  an  accord  which  could  not  have  been  devised 
by  men  of  the  time  of  Christ,  or  even  in  these 
days  of  scientific  knowledge,  but  only  could 
have  been  the  work  of  some  superhuman  power 

—  subsists  between  every  important  dogma  of 
Christianity  and  Evolution,  and  which  accord- 
ance, if  it  exists,  constitutes  in  itself  one  of  the 
strongest  arguments  for  receiving  the  Christian 
religion  as  of  divine  origin. 

A  further  deduction  from  the  acceptance  of 

the  above  proposition  will  be  that  the  Christian 

religion  is  as  evolutionary  in  its  influence  on  the 

moral,  and   incidentally   on   the   physical   and 

[4] 


Theology  and  Evolution 

mental,  nature  of  man  as  the  Survival  of  the 
fittest  and  the  transmission  of  acquired  charac- 
teristics to  progeny  are  on  the  physical  nature 
of  animals ;  and  therefore  said  religion  is  en- 
titled to  be  ranked  as  a  Science  with  physiology 
and  mental  philosophy. 


[5] 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF   EVOLUTION 

OMITTING  all  the  speculations  of  philos- 
ophers on  the  subject  of  Evolution  from 
the  time  of  Aristotle  to  1859,  when  Charles 
Darwin  published  "  The  Origin  of  Species,"  as 
not  absolutely  important  to  these  discussions, 
it  may  be  stated  briefly  that  the  conception  of 
Evolution  from  this  latter  period  has  taken  a 
firmer  hold  on  the  scientific  mind  than  at  any 
previous  era  of  philosophic  thought. 

The  principal  reason  for  this  more  general 
belief  is  that  greater  attention  under  improved 
facilities  of  observation  has  been  given  to  the 
phenomena  of  the  development  of  life  in  both 
plants  and  animals,  and  biologists  have  been 
driven  by  force  of  pure  reasoning  from  observed 
facts  to  the  conclusion  that  many  now  divergent 
species  have  sprung  from  a  common  ancestor, 
and  that  no  other  theory  than  Evolution,  sub- 
stantially as  announced  by  Darwin,  logically  or 
scientifically  accounts  for  this  divergence. 

Chief  among  the  facts  which  have  compelled 
biologists  to  adopt  the  doctrine  of  Evolution, 
and  stated  in  a  general  manner,  are :  ^ 
1  See  "  Evolution,"  Revised  Edition  Encyclopoedia  Brittanica. 

[6] 


The  Doctrine  of  Evolution 

1.  The  gradations,  from  simplicity  of  struc- 
ture and  its  functions  to  great  complexity  among 
those  classes  of  living  things  which  bear  a  strong 
family  resemblance,  show  the  probabilities  are 
enormously  in  favor  of  an  inherent  tendency  in 
life  towards  greater  complexity  of  structure, 
and  consequently  of  a  more  heterogeneous  and 
higher  functional  life. 

2.  The  existence  of  an  unmistakable  similarity 
between  the  adult  and  matured  creatures  of  any 
lower  species  of  animals  or  plants  and  the  em- 
bryonic, infantile,  or  immature  creatures  of  the 
higher  members  of  the  same  family.  A  con- 
spicuous instance  of  this  characteristic,  showing 
the  evolution  of  birds  from  marine  animals,  is,  if 
the  eggs  of  either  a  hen  or  thrush,  etc.,  be  ex- 
amined after  the  first  few  days  of  incubation, 
the  young  creatures  within  the  shells  will  be 
found  to  possess  the  fin-like  appendages  and 
gills  of  fish. 

3.  The  fact  that  groups  of  large  families,  for 
example,  vertebrates,  of  extremely  various  habits 
are  constructed  on  a  plan  so  similar  that  in 
many  instances  bone  for  bone,  muscle  for 
muscle,  and  nerve  for  nerve  may  be  traced, 
with  more  or  less  modifications  to  suit  such 
habits,  through  entire  families,  which  similarity 
is  inexplicable  unless  they  had  sprung  from  a 
common  ancestor. 

4.  The  existence  of  structure  in  rudimentary 

[7] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

and  useless  conditions  in  some  members  of  a 
group,  while  in  other  members  of  the  same 
group  the  same  structure  exists  in  a  fully  devel- 
oped condition,  and  performs  important  and 
necessary  functions  for  the  life  and  well-being 
of  such  members. 

5.  The  constantly  observed  and  well-known 
effects  of  use  and  disuse  of  parts  and  faculties, 
in  modifying  structure  and  functions,  the  adap- 
tation of  the  animal  or  plant  to  its  environment, 
and  the  capacity  of  all  living  organisms  to  trans- 
mit to  their  progeny  the  characteristics  of  their 
own  natures. 

6.  The  astonishing  similarity  of  structure  and 
its  functions  among  animals  and  plants  now  in- 
habiting the  earth  although  separated  by,  to 
them,  impassable  seas,  mountains,  and  other 
natural  barriers. 

7.  The  extraordinary  succession  in  geologic 
strata  of  the  various  forms  of  life  from  lower  to 
higher  species,  including  extinct  types;  and 
fossil  types  so  simple  and  homogeneous  of 
existing  forms  that  the  probability  is  they 
were  the  primordial  progenitors  of  present 
groups. 

A  vast  array  of  observed  facts  has  estab- 
lished the  above  general  propositions,  and  to 
account  for  them  on  any  reasonable  basis  it 
was  necessary  to  abandon  the  idea  of  Spe- 
cial Creations  for  each  species,  and  to  adopt 
[8] 


The  Doctrine  of  Evolution 

the  hypothesis  that  there  existed  in  Hving 
things  a  plasticity  of  organism  competent  to 
mould  itself  in  accordance  with  its  environ- 
ment, and  to  transmit  its  modified  structure  to 
its  offspring. 


[9] 


AGENCIES  OF  EVOLUTION 

THE  agencies  of  Evolution  employed  in 
causing  the  physical  development  of  life 
are  many.  Mr.  Darwin,  in  "  The  Origin  of 
Species,"  attributed  very  important  effects  to 
what  he  termed  Natural  Selection,  or  the  Sur- 
vival of  the  Fittest.  An  illustration  will  best 
define  what  is  understood,  in  part,  by  this  ex- 
pression, although  the  term  was  not  limited  to 
conscious  acts.  Usually  in  a  herd  of  deer  run- 
ning wild  in  the  forests,  the  largest,  most  pow- 
erful, and  intelligent  males  drive  off  their  less 
favorably  endowed  competitors  and  capture  as 
mates  the  most  attractive  females.  The  progeny 
of  this  selection  will  in  some  instances,  under 
propitious  circumstances,  partake  of  the  supe- 
rior characteristics  of  their  parents.  By  the 
constant  acquirement  or  improvement  in  this 
manner  of  new  qualities  and  their  transmission, 
although  it  may  be  in  each  instance  of  small 
moment,  the  original  structure  of  the  distant 
ancestor  will  be  so  modified  a  new  species  will 
be  created. 

The  exercise  of  this  selection  applies  princi- 
pally to  animals  so  far  advanced  mentally  that 

[lO] 


Agencies  of  Evolution 

they  possess  conscious  desires,  and  have  the 
ability  to  make  the  necessary  efforts  to  gratify 
them.  Darwin  and  other  naturalists  have  col- 
lected many  facts  showing  that  almost  all  animal 
creation  has  positive  preferences  in  the  selection 
of  mates,  and  in  some  instances  very  decided 
aesthetic  faculties.  In  this  way  the  brilliant  plu- 
mage and  vocal  attainments  of  birds  have  been 
acquired,  the  female  usually  accepting  as  her 
mate  the  male  which  makes  the  most  fascinating 
display. 

Another  efficient  agency  in  the  development 
of  both  plant  and  animal  life  is  plasticity  of 
structure,  and  the  effort  of  all  organisms  to 
adapt  themselves  to  their  environments.  Every 
living  thing  has  wants,  and  a  great  many  of 
them.  Each  life  if  examined  closely  will  be 
found  to  have  a  very  narrow  sphere  wherein  it 
can  exist.  It  must,  first  of  all,  have  heat  regu- 
lated to  the  exercise  of  its  functions.  A  differ- 
ence of  a  few  degrees  in  temperature  is  in  a 
short  time  fatal  to  some  animals,  and  of  fewer 
degrees  still  to  their  perfect  development. 
Water  is  another  prime  essential.  All  organic 
structure  has  a  large  percentage  of  water,  and 
no  physiological  functions  can  be  performed 
unless  water  furnishes  the  diluent  to  enable  the 
organs  to  move  with  reference  to  one  another. 
An  interesting  fact  and  evidently  importing  de- 
sign in  connection  with  the  molecular  mobility 

[II] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

of  structure  is  that  all  organisms  are  composed 
almost  exclusively  of  the  three  gases,  —  viz., 
oxygen,  hydrogen,  and  nitrogen,  —  with  some 
carbon,  which  is  a  solid.  These  components 
being  mostly  gaseous,  their  compounds  are 
more  or  less  plastic  and  easily  change  in  struc- 
ture under  the  influence  of  external  forces. 

The  necessity  for  a  supply  of  carbonic  acid 
gas  for  plants  and  oxygen  for  animals  is  im- 
perative. The  union  of  oxygen  with  the  other 
elements  of  the  animal  furnishes  usually  the 
necessary  internal  heat  and  destruction  of  effete 
matters.  It  is  unnecessary  to  elaborate  the  in- 
dispensability  of  food  suitable  to  respective 
organisms.  A  failure  of  an  adequate  supply 
of  any  one  of  the  foregoing  prime  necessities 
speedily  ends  in  extinction. 

Now  all  animals  which  have  survived,  includ- 
ing man,  have  been  endeavoring,  consciously 
and  subconsciously,  every  instant  of  their  ex- 
istence to  accommodate  themselves  to  these 
and  many  other  more  or  less  important  things 
surrounding  them.  For  example,  a  sheep  bred 
in  a  southern  latitude  will  possess  a  thin  wool. 
If  the  same  animal  is  taken  to  a  more  northern 
climate,  the  wool  thickens,  and  in  a  few  genera- 
tions, the  animal  is  protected  with  an  ample 
fleece.  When  the  organism  is  unable  to  respond 
to  the  external  forces  encompassing  it,  death 
takes  place,  for  life  may  be  defined  to  be  a  sue- 

[12] 


Agencies  of  Evolution 

cession  of  internal  changes  to  accord  with  ex- 
ternal conditions. 

An  instance  of  the  accommodation  of  plants 
to  arid  conditions,  such  as  exist  in  Mexico,  is 
the  development  of  the  large  pulpous  leaves, 
full  of  fluids,  of  the  southern  cactus,  by  which 
adequate  water  is  not  only  provided  but  con- 
served for  the  use  of  the  plant  during  the  dry 
season.  The  necessity  of  oxygen  affords  a  re- 
markable example  of  how  a  creature  can  change 
itself  from  a  water-breathing  to  an  air-breathing 
animal.  In  1835  ^  quasi  fish  was  discovered  in 
a  swamp  bordering  the  Amazon,  shaped  like  an 
eel  with  scales.  It  had  perfect  gills  and  perfect 
lungs  with  air  tubes  and  nostrils.  Subsequently 
a  similar  one  was  discovered  in  Africa.  At 
that  time  naturalists  were  unable  to  determine 
how  such  a  double-breathing  animal  came  to 
exist.  When  the  doctrine  of  evolution  was  pro- 
mulgated, the  explanation  was  apparent  that 
the  above  animal  was  a  link  form  between  true 
fishes  and  the  amphibians. 

Professor  Wilhelm  Boelsche  states  the  case 
substantially  thus  :  Through  fossils  it  was  learned 
that  in  a  very  remote  period  of  the  world's  history 
the  oldest  representatives  of  vertebrates  were 
fish.  Then  in  the  carboniferous  age,  long  after 
the  remote  fish  age,  the  amphibians  appeared. 
Somewhere  between  those  two  periods  there 
must  have  occurred  the  change  of  one  or  more  of 

[•3] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

the  fishes  to  land-breathing  and  land-dwelling 
animals.  That  was  doubtless  the  time  of  the 
lizard-fish,  if  the  lizard-fish  was  the  link,  yet  no 
lizard-fish  was  then  known.  But  in  1869  there 
was  found  in  Australia  a  carp-like  fish  with  gills 
and  scales,  but  also  a  lung — one  single  lung. 
The  mouth  had  not  fish  teeth,  but  four  big  teeth 
with  crowns  indented  like  the  comb  of  a  rooster. 
Now  such  teeth  —  fossil  teeth  —  had  been  found 
long  before.  Next  was  unearthed  a  well-pre- 
served skull,  and  the  impression  of  the  caudal 
end  of  the  same  creature.  Thus  was  established 
in  this  lizard-fish  the  connecting  link  between 
the  fossil  and  the  then  living  animals  of  the 
Amazon  and  of  Africa,  and  also  between  fishes 
and  amphibians.  It  was  called  the  Ceratodus. 
This  lizard  furnishes  an  illustration  of  how  the 
lung  developed  from  the  gills.  Where  it  lived 
in  the  Devonian  epoch  there  were  many  pools, 
alternately  furnished  with  water  and  then  be- 
coming dry.  While  the  water  lasted,  the  lizard 
breathed  through  its  gills,  when  it  dried  up 
through  its  lung.  But  how  was  the  gill  de- 
veloped into  a  lung?  The  true  fish  owns  a 
well-known  organ  —  the  swimming  bladder.  An- 
atomically this  bladder  belongs  to  the  alimen- 
tary canal.  In  many  fish  there  is  an  air  connection 
with  this  canal.  In  the  Ceratodus  the  develop- 
ment of  this  bladder  into  a  lung  became  com- 
plete.    Along  the  wall  of  the  swimming  bladder 

[14] 


Agencies  of  Evolution 

there  began  to  form  air-sucking  blood  vessels, 
and  the  mouth  of  the  bladder  gradually  length- 
ened from  the  depths  of  the  canal  towards  the 
mouth  as  it  was  used  more  and  more  to  suck  in 
air  when  the  water  grew  scarcer.  The  air  pas- 
sage became  a  windpipe  and  the  swimming 
bladder  a  lung.  Professor  Haeckel  urged  on 
the  world  of  science  the  importance  of  studying 
the  egg  of  the  Ceratodus,  and  a  naturalist  was 
sent  to  Australia,  who  after  two  years  discovered 
that  the  creature  developed  not  as  a  fish  but  as 
an  amphibian,  passing  through  the  same  stages 
which  characterize  frogs.  So  in  the  Ceratodus 
biologists  recognize  a  true  survivor  of  the  lizard- 
fishes,  and  thus,  as  they  claim,  an  ancestor  of 
man  —  the  particular  ancestor  that  developed 
his  lungs. 

Hundred  of  instances  might  be  mentioned 
showing  prominently  this  adaptation  by  efforts, 
conscious  and  unconscious,  of  plants  and  animals 
to  their  environment. 

The  matter  of  securing  an  adequate  supply 
of  proper  food  has  worked  great  changes  in  the 
structure  and  functions  of  all  living  organisms. 
Thus  the  bee  has  been  obliged  to  lengthen  his 
tongue  in  order  to  get  to  the  deep  sugar  cells 
of  the  red  clover.  Imperative  necessity  for  food 
and  effort  to  gratify  the  desire  have  wrought 
the  necessary  changes  in  the  elastic  membranes 
of    the    tongue.     The  giraffe  has  probably  de- 

[15] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

scended  from  the  xiophodon,  an  extinct  herbiv- 
orous animal  of  the  Cenozoic  age.  Under  the 
necessity  of  reaching  the  branches  and  twigs 
above  his  head,  the  seven  cervical  vertebrae  the 
giraffe  inherited  from  his  progenitor  have  grad- 
ually lengthened.  The  precise  physiological 
manner  in  which  the  structure  and  functions  of 
the  neck  of  the  giraffe  were  extended  to  sub- 
serve his  necessity  for  food  was  that  by  his 
exertions  to  reach  the  twigs  and  leaves  an  in- 
creased determination  or  flow  of  blood  to  the 
neck  was  produced.  This  led  to  increased 
nutrition,  and  as  a  consequence,  to  an  increase 
of  cell-growth  both  in  the  vertebrae  and  muscles 
—  an  increased  cell-growth  results  in  an  enlarge- 
ment of  structure  and  specialized  development 
of  the  parts. 

Among  other  causes  operating  to  produce 
modifications  may  be  mentioned  the  escaping 
of  dangers  and  the  use  of  protective  colorings. 
Insects,  birds,  and  animals  simulate  their  sur- 
roundings, and  when  apprehensive  of  enemies, 
place  themselves  in  positions  similar  in  color  to 
to  their  own,  so  as  to  be  least  conspicuous. 
They  thus  make  an  effort  to  save  their  lives. 

If  the  characteristics  acquired  by  organisms, 
intentionally  and  unintentionally,  by  efforts  to 
accommodate  themselves  to  their  respective  en- 
vironments were  lost  by  the  death  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  thus  their  transmission  to  offspring 
[i6] 


Agencies  of  Evolution 

rendered  impossible,  no  progress  would  be  made 
in  the  differentiation  of  either  plants  or  animals. 
But  such  is  the  character  of  inheritance  that  not 
only  does  it  bring  forth  young  after  its  own  kind, 
but  most  often  the  minutest  peculiarities  of  struc- 
ture, function,  and  mental  qualities  are  trans- 
mitted. No  argument  or  illustration  is  needed 
to  show  how  parents  recognize  in  their  children 
many  of  their  own  characteristics. 

Besides  in  some  yet  unexplained  manner 
progeny  partakes  of  both  parents,  thus  transmit- 
ting not  only  old  and  newly  acquired  structures 
of  male  and  female  ancestors  respectively,  but 
often  wonderfully  combining,  modifying,  enlarg- 
ing, or  diminishing,  etc.,  the  characteristics  of 
each  parent  with  those  of  the  other,  thus  produc- 
ing new  forms  alike  to,  and  yet  different  from 
each ;  and  occasionally  giving  birth  to  beings 
which  if  perpetuated  would  be  regarded  as  new 
species.  This  innate  power  of  transmission  and 
combination  has  been  availed  of  by  breeders  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  produce  at  will  beef-cattle  or 
milch  cows,  slow  draft  horses  or  racers,  etc. 

The  foregoing  condensed  exposition  of  some 
of  the  agencies  at  work  in  modifying  the  physi- 
cal structure  of  organisms,  it  will  be  noticed,  are 
all  based  more  or  less  on  the  conscious  or  sub- 
conscious efforts  of  animals  to  supply  the  neces- 
sities of  their  existence.  The  moment  the  proper 
amount  of  heat  is  withdrawn  or  increased,  the 

[17] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

creature  makes  an  effort  to  seek  a  more  agree- 
able temperature  and  adapt  his  body  to  the  new- 
condition  ;  failing  in  this  he  perishes.  So  with 
air,  with  light,  with  water,  etc.  As  regards  food, 
the  supply  of  which  is  not  so  abundant  as  the 
other  necessaries,  almost  the  entire  lifetime  of 
all  animals,  including  man,  is  spent  in  efforts  to 
acquire  an  adequate  amount.  This  great  and 
inexorable  necessity  is  ever  taxing  their  best 
efforts,  and  the  efforts  are  changing  bones,  mus- 
cles, nerves,  blood  vessels,  mucous  membranes, 
etc.,  whenever  such  change  renders  the  ac- 
quisition of  food  more  easy,  or  its  use  more 
beneficial. 

So  the  fundamental  principles  underlying  Evo- 
lution are  that  life  has  been  created  with  neces- 
sities ;  these  necessities  are  individualized  in 
each  animal;  each  entity  must,  in  effect,  make 
the  effort  to  appropriate  them  for  itself;  and  the 
efforts  to  appropriate  such  necessities  act  on 
organisms  so  soft,  so  ductile,  or  so  plastic  that 
constant  effort  in  one  direction  causes  the  blood 
to  flow  to  the  parts,  thereby  increasing  their 
nutrition  which  results  in  cell-growth,  and  thus 
modifies  the  structure  and  functions  of  the  cells, 
the  sum  total  of  which  cells  is  the  unit  organism. 

Or  to  state  the  proposition  in  the  converse 
form,  if  heat  and  air  and  food,  etc.,  had  always 
been  so  abundant  that  no  effort  had  been  re- 
quired to  provide  and  appropriate  them,  and  no 
[18] 


Agencies  of  Evolution 

enemies  had  existed  calling  for  effort  to  escape, 
there  would  have  been  no  change  of  organism 
and  consequently  no  development  from  the  sim- 
ple to  the  complex,  from  the  comparatively- 
useful  to  the  more  useful  —  in  a  word,  no  evolu- 
tion of  the  physical  structures  and  functions. 
Or  to  state  the  proposition  yet  more  broadly, 
Evolution  is  the  result  of  Effort. 


[19] 


LIMITATIONS   OF  EVOLUTION 

THE  doctrine  of  Evolution  is  still  in  its 
adolescence.  The  cause  of  this  is  two- 
fold. I.  The  short  period  in  which  it  has 
claimed  serious  scientific  attention  has  not 
allowed  adequate  facts  to  be  observed  so  as  to 
constitute  a  well-defined  philosophy  both  as  to 
what  it  includes  and  those  things  it  excludes 
from  its  sphere  of  influence.  2.  Its  principles 
were  so  revolutionary,  so  contrary  to  cherished 
opinions  of  Christians,  and  so  agreeable  to  men 
of  infidel  tendencies,  the  former  have,  as  was 
quite  natural,  either  refused  to  entertain  its  just 
claims,  or  diminished  its  true  influence;  and  the 
latter  in  their  joy  to  find  something  by  which  to 
sustain  their  irreligion,  have  extended  its  scope 
beyond  legitimate  deductions. 

And  yet  enough  is  now  known  from  which  to 
formulate  a  wonderful  order  of  creation,  har- 
monious in  every  part  and  rationally  explicable 
only  on  the  theory  that  this  thing  we  call  Evo 
lution  is  but  another  name  for  a  natural 
ordained  by  an  all-wise  and  powerful  Creator, 
who  is  outside  of  and  superior  to  creation,  and 
by  which  law  He  has  evolved  all  things  and  en- 

[20] 


iblc/ 
voJ 
laJ 


Limitations  of  Evolution 

dowed  them    with  qualities,  the    sum   total   of 
which  is  the  present  cosmos. 

The  writer  is  not  aware  that  any  English  sci- 
entist of  prominence  has  claimed  that  Evolution 
has  produced  Matter.  Creation  is  beyond  the 
domain  of  Evolution.  Evolution  presupposes 
structure  and  function,  though  ever  so  small; 
and  its  sole  office  is  to  modify  reciprocally  both 
structure  and  function  so  they  will  adapt  them- 
selves to  external  forces.  According  to  Mr. 
Spencer,  Evolution  is  a  change  from  the  homo- 
geneous to  the  heterogeneous,  from  the  indefi- 
nite to  the  definite,  from  the  incoherent  to  the 
coherent.  He  has  sought  to  show  that  the 
causes  of  Evolution  are  involved  in  the  ulti- 
mate laws  of  matter,  force,  and  motion,  among 
which  he  places  the  doctrine  of  conservation  of 
energy.  But  it  is  manifest  this  explanation 
assumes  the  pre-existence  of  matter,  force,  and 
motion,  and  their  laws.  Indeed,  the  law  of 
conservation  of  energy  implies  in  its  definition, 
no  matter  or  force  has  been  evolved  or  lost 
since  the  original  and  first  creation,  and  all 
that  has  existed  since  has  been  simply  a  recom- 
bination of  previously  existing  elements.  So 
Evolution  in  its  widest  application  leaves  us 
entirely  without  any  explanation  as  to  final 
causes;  as  to  how  substances  came  to  be;  as 
to  how  the  various  kinds  of  matter  were  en- 
dowed with  their  respective  qualities;    and  as 

[21] 


Agreement  of  Evolution,  and  Christianity 

to  how  the  laws  of  force  and  motion  —  laws 
so  complex  and  so  certain  they  can  be  formu- 
lated only  in  many  instances  by  the  higher 
mathematics  —  attach  themselves  to  and  govern 
all  matter  in  its  minutest  details.  As  long  as 
Evolution  does  not  make  good  a  claim  to  crea- 
tive power,  then  the  evolutionist  may  be  a 
Christian  and  the  Christian  an  evolutionist,  and 
each  accept  the  Mosaic  narrative  as  true  that 
"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and 
the  earth." 

To  state  these  propositions  concretely : 
y  I.  There  is  no  pretence  that  any  person  or 
thing  has  created  a  grain  of  new  matter.  Some- 
thing has  never  been  known  to  have  been  pro- 
duced from  nothing.  The  various  elements 
found  in  the  earth's  strata  and  in  water  and  in  air 
have  been  and  can  be  made  to  combine  with  one 
another  and  produce  new  substances,  but  their 
sum  total  is  exactly  equivalent  to,  and  neither 
more  nor  less  than  the  components.  Accord- 
ingly, Evolution  offers  no  explanation  for  the 
inconceivable  masses  of  matter  aggregated  in 
the  various  globes  revolving  in  space.  Upon 
the  subject  of  the  First  Cause  it  is  profoundly 
silent. 

2.  Each  of  the  separate  elements  composing 
the  body  of  the  earth  has  very  distinct  qualities 
from  every  other  element.  There  has  been 
plainly  no  evolution  in  iron,  gold,  lime,  carbon, 

[22] 


Limitations  of  Evolution 

etc.      The    qualities   they   possess   have    never 
altered.     They  are  the  same  as  to  color,  weight,  y 
magnetic  attraction  and  repulsion,  electrical  or' 
combining    affinities,   etc.,  as    they  were  when 
first  made  in  the  first  instant  of  creation.     They 
are  the  same  in  all  parts  of  the  earth  wherever 
found.     A  grain  of  gold  from  Colorado  or  one 
from    Australia    is   a    grain   of  gold    in    every 
characteristic,    without    the    slightest   variation 
in    any    respect.     Evolution    has    therefore    no  \ 
function  in  the   establishment  of  the  qualities  ) 
of  matter. 

3.  The  same  proposition  is  equally  clear  as 
to  the  laws  governing  force  and  motion.  They 
operate  on  matter  precisely  at  this  moment 
as  when  first  brought  into  existence.  They  are 
so  accurate  and  unchanging  that,  for  example, 
not  a  second  of  acceleration  or  retardation  has 
yet  been  observed  in  the  revolution  of  so  im- 
mense a  body  as  the  earth  during  the  period 
of  a  year.  These  laws  various  in  the  extreme 
are  more  immutable  and  real  than  the  moun- 
tains or  the  seas.  Each  is  harmonious  in  every 
detail  with  its  own  law,  and  in  accord  with  every 
other  law  regulating  other  forces  and  motions. 
If  one  law  were  to  be  changed  all  nature  would 
be  in  conflict,  and  ruin  follow.  So  that  nothing 
is  more  stable  than  physical  laws.  There  could 
have  been  no  subsequent  adjustment  of  them, 
for    conflict    would    have    existed    previously. 

[23] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

They  must  have  been  perfect  when  decreed. 
On  the  other  hand,  Evolution  by  its  very  name 
signifies  change.  If  there  were  no  changes 
there  would  be  no  evolution.  The  human  mind 
is,  therefore,  driven  in  accounting  for  the  laws 
of  force  and  motion  to  the  First  Cause,  to  the 
inscrutable  something  above  and  beyond  nature, 
and  no  part  of  nature ;  to  the  only  rational  solu- 
tion that  as  something  cannot  come  from  noth- 
ing in  a  material  and  physical  sense,  there  must 
exist  a  supernatural  power,  a  power  beyond 
time  and  sense,  which  power  according  to  the 
logic  of  the  human  mind  is  best  accounted  for 
in  the  existence  of  an  all-wise,  all-powerful 
Supreme  Being,  Self-existent,  who  has  been 
revealed  to  it  as  God.  This  is  as  far  as  the 
intellect  of  man  can  penetrate,  and  in  penetrat- 
ing thus  far  into  the  First  Cause,  it  creates  for 
itself  a  conclusion  gratifying  and  satisfying; 
it  rests  content,  and  wisely  leaves  the  balance 
to  the  same  God  who  has  made  all  things  under 
the  belief  that  knowledge  adequate  for  its  own 
good  has  been  revealed. 

4.  The  theory  of  Evolution  undertakes  in  its 
broadest  generalization,  in  the  philosophy  of 
Mr.  Spencer,  to  embrace  the  development  of 
all  organized  matter  and  organic  life.  But 
mark  well,  it  does  not  account  for  the  origin 
of  either  matter  or  its  qualities  or  its  laws; 
but  given  these  as  created  entities,  it  declares 

[24] 


Limitations  of  Evolution 

there  is  enough  in  such  laws  operating  on 
matter  to  have  evolved  the  globes  of  the  firm- 
ament, and  all  organic  life  heretofore  and  now 
known. 

Mr.  Spencer,  who  has  done  more  than  any- 
other  writer  to  reduce  the  doctrine  of  Evolution 
to  a  philosophy  embracing  all  organization, 
takes  primordial  matter,  gaseous,  nebulous,  dark, 
and  unformed,  and  by  the  laws  of  gravitation, 
of  resultant  forces,  of  the  conservation  of  energy, 
of  heat,  of  light,  etc.,  shows  how  Evolution  has 
formed  our  solar  system.  This  is  substantially 
the  nebular  hypothesis  which  La  Place  first 
formulated  mathematically,  and  it  has  since 
been  generally  adopted  by  astronomers. 

That  subject  is  mentioned  at  this  place  to 
illustrate  the  methods  of  evolutionary  reason- 
ing, which  consist,  not  so  much  in  absolute 
demonstration,  but  in  deductions  from  known 
facts  and  the  operation  of  known  laws  on  them, 
and  a  probable  conclusion  is  reached.  There 
cannot  be  any  certain  proof  of  the  nebular 
hypothesis,  from  the  fact  that  the  events  de- 
scribed took  place  millions  of  years  ago  ;  but  so 
well  known  are  the  laws  which  must  have  been 
active  in  bringing  about  the  concretion  of  nebu- 
lous matter  into  spheres,  and  so  antagonistic 
are  the  ascertained  facts  to  any  other  explana- 
tion, that  the  human  mind  finds  no  difficulty,  by 
this  deductive  method  of  reasoning,  in  accepting 

[25] 


Agreement  of  Evolution, and  Christianity 

the  conception  that  they  were  in  all  probability 
evolved  in  some  such  manner. 

5.  Another  limitation  as  to  the  absolute  dem- 
onstrations of  Evolution  which  may  be  men- 
tioned is  the  theory  that  all  Hfe,  including  man's, 
sprang  from  a  blurred,  undetermined  feeling 
which  answered  to  a  single  nervous  pulsation 
or  shock.  From  this  it  is  supposed  a  conscious- 
ness was  developed,  and  sensations  by  a  number 
of  rapid  successions  of  such  feelings,  —  these 
sensations  growing  more  vivid  and  complex  with 
the  physical  advance  of  the  animal,  until  the 
dawn  of  mental  life.  But  it  is  clear  there  is  no 
proof  of  this  process.  It  is,  however,  an  hypoth- 
esis which  accounts  with  considerable  probabil- 
ity for  the  development  of  the  mind  —  indeed 
with  more  probability  than  any  other  theory 
advanced  at  the  present  day.  The  acceptance 
of  such  a  doctrine  may  at  first  glance  seem  so 
revolutionary  as  to  shock  the  sensibilities  of 
many  who  have  not  studied  the  subject,  yet  the 
writer  trusts  he  will  be  able  to  show  in  these 
pages  that  the  theory  is  entirely  in  accord  with 
the  Mosaic  narrative  of  Creation. 

6.  When  the  modern  doctrine  of  Evolution 
was  first  announced  in  1859  by  Mr.  Darwin,  in 
*'  The  Origin  of  Species,"  he  discussed  its  opera- 
tion as  to  the  development  of  new  species.  For 
example,  taking  as  a  parent  the  wild  pigeon,  he 
showed  how  all  the  present  varieties  of  pigeons 

[26] 


Limitations  of  Evolution 

could  be  easily  produced.  But  it  is  plain  the 
causes  which  could  accomplish  these  changes 
in  a  short  time  would  produce  still  greater  ones, 
given  an  indefinite  period  and  unlimited  number 
of  subjects  to  operate  on.  So  it  was  a  short 
step  in  this  deductive  process  to  trace  man  to 
some  ancestral  type  of  man-like  ape,  now  ex- 
tinct, of  the  Miocene  period  ;  and  man-like  ape 
to  dog-like  ape ;  and  this  last  to  the  anoplothe- 
rium  of  the  early  Eocene  age,  which  was  the 
common  progenitor  of  dogs,  wolves,  tigers,  lions, 
bears,  etc. ;  the  anoplotherium  to  the  paleothe- 
rium  at  the  opening  of  the  Tertiary  period ; 
and  so  on  backward  to  a  protozoic  cell.  But 
of  all  this  there  has  been  no  actual  demonstra- 
tion. It  is  true  explorations  of  the  earth's  crust 
have  been  comparatively  few  and  the  finds  of 
fossil,  remains  meagre.  It  is  also  true  that 
nearly  all  the  remains  found  have  been  in  ac- 
cord with  the  evolutionary  succession  of  animals 
and  plants,  and  a  constant  fiUing  in  of  missing 
forms  has  constituted  more  or  less  connecting 
links  between  genera  and  families  of  organisms, 
and  so  more  and  more  probability  is  given  to 
the  efficiency  of  evolution.  Yet  it  may  be  said, 
many  resemblances  are  imagined  by  the  ardent 
devotees  of  this  law,  and  many  assertions  made 
of  processes  gone  through  with  by  such  or- 
ganisms, now  only  fossils,  of  which  there  is 
absolutely  no  proof. 

[27] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

But  whether  the  hypothesis  of  Special  Crea- 
tion or  the  hypothesis  of  Evolution  be  chosen, 
Mr.  Spencer  says,  "Both  hypotheses  imply  a 
Cause.  The  last,  certainly  as  much  as  the  first, 
recognizes  this  Cause  as  inscrutable.  The  point 
at  issue  is,  how  this  inscrutable  Cause  has  worked 
in  the  production  of  living  forms." 

In  the  next  chapters  it  will  be  attempted  to 
be  shown  that  the  hypothesis  of  Evolution, 
I,  in  regard  to  the  evolution  of  the  earth;  2,  as 
to  the  order  of  appearance  of  animals;  and  3, 
as  to  the  origin  of  the  logical  and  emotional 
faculties  of  all  animals,  including  man's,  are  in 
accord  with  the  Mosaic  narrative  of  Creation. 


[28] 


AGREEMENT  OF  EVOLUTION  AND 

THE  MOSAIC  NARRATIVE 

OF  THE  CREATION 

CHRISTIANITY  regards  the  Scriptures  of 
the  Old  Testament  to  be  inspired  by- 
God.  Evolution  and  the  Mosaic  narrative  of 
the  Creation  treat  of  the  same  matter;  it  is 
therefore  necessary  in  a  discussion  of  the  agree- 
ments of  Evolution  and  Christianity  that  the 
subject  of  this  chapter  should  be  included. 

La  Place,  a  distinguished  astronomer  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  while  investigating  the 
phenomena  of  the  solar  system  which  com- 
prises, including  the  planets,  their  satellites,  and 
the  asteroids,  several  hundred  components,  was 
impressed  with  the  facts  ^  that  their  orbits  were 
all  nearly  circular  around  the  sun,  and  nearly 
all  in  one  plane ;  that  their  revolutions  on  their 
axes  were  practically  in  the  same  direction  as 
that  of  the  sun ;  that  there  was  a  regular  pro- 
gression of  distances  between  the  orbits  of  the 
planets,  and  a  regular  progression  of  density; 
and  that  the  largest  planets  rotated  most  swiftly. 
As  regard  the  planets  themselves,  it  was  noticed 

1  Young's  "  General  Astronomy." 

[  29  ] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

that  the  planes  of  their  rotations  nearly  coincided 
with  their  orbits;  that  the  direction  of  their 
rotation  was  the  same  as  their  orbital  revolu- 
tion ;  and  that  the  satellites  of  the  planets  with 
one  apparent  exception  had  the  same  motions 
as  the  planets  themselves.  For  these  spheres  to 
have  been  of  independent  origin  and  yet  move 
in  the  manner  above  described,  it  has  been  re- 
liably computed  ^  that  there  were  about  99,  999, 
999.  999.  999,  999»  999,  999,  999,  999,  999,  999, 
999,  999,  999,  999,  999,  999,  999,  999  chances 
in  favor  of  their  common  origin  to  i  chance  in 
favor  of  their  independent  origin.  With  such 
inconceivable  chances  in  favor  of  a  common 
origin,  the  probability  amounting  to  as  great  a 
certainty  as  any  other  subject  of  human  knowl- 
edge ;  and  with  all  the  known  facts  agreeing 
with  the  laws  of  gravitation,  resultant  forces, 
and  their  consequent  motions;  and  also  with 
the  laws  of  heat  and  light,  etc.,  La  Place  pro- 
pounded a  mathematical  nebular  hypothesis, 
which  has  been  substantially  accepted  since 
by  all  evolutionists. 

This  theory,  as  conceived  by  modern  astrono- 
mers, presupposes  the  entire  space  subject  to 
the  influence  of  the  solar  system  was  originally 
filled  with  matter  in  a  gaseous,  or  nebulous,  or 
meteoric  state.  If  this  system  is  estimated  to 
have  extended  only  as  far  as  one  quarter  beyond 

1  "  Nebular  Theory,"  Revised  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica. 

[30] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

the  orbit  of  Neptune,  the  most  distant  planet, 
a  very  reasonable  limit,  and  if  this  cubic  space, 
and  also  the  sum  of  the  cubic  contents  of  the 
sun  and  the  planets  be  computed,  it  will  be 
found  there  are  approximately  sixty-six  billion 
cubic  miles  of  space  in  the  solar  system  to  one 
cubic  mile  of  matter  therein  ;  or  stated  in  a 
more  comprehensible  manner,  one  cubic  mile  of 
earth  if  expanded  to  its  original  gaseous  con- 
dition would  fill  a  space  little  less  than  that 
occupied  by  the  planet  Mars,  or  greater  than 
six  of  our  moons. 

1.  Two  physical  facts  offer  their  testimony 
as  to  what  must  have  existed  at  that  time, 
(i)  Space  occupied  by  matter  so  attenuated 
may  be  described  as  void ;  and  (2)  such  matter 
must  have  been  without  form. 

2.  Matter  so  inconceivably  expanded  could 
not  have  possessed  vibrations,  and  without  vi- 
brations there  was  no  heat  or  light,  and  conse- 
quently darkness  prevailed. 

So,  the  Mosaic  account  in  describing  the 
"  Beginning,"  as  "  And  the  earth  was  without 
form  and  void^  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face 
of  the  deep,"  is  scientifically  accurate,  and 
agrees  with  the  accepted  nebular  hypothesis. 

3.  This  hypothesis,  however,  goes  no  further 
back  than  the  gaseous,  nebulous,  or  meteoric 
period.  It  is  silent  as  to  whence  the  gases 
came,    or   who    created    them.      The    inspired 

[31] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

word  of  God  reveals  their  Creator  to  mankind, 
and  we  obtain  this  information  from  no  other 
source.  **  In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth." 

Evolution  has  no  evidence  or  suggestion  in 
contradiction. 

4.  The  solar  system  is  considered  by  astrono- 
mers to  belong  to  a  system  infinitely  greater, 
represented  by  the  Galaxy  or  Milky  Way,  com- 
posed of  myriads  of  suns — many  equal  to  our 
own  sun,  and  probably  with  planets  revolving 
around  some  of  them.  But  outside  of  the 
Milky  Way  and  of  great  significance,  in  oppo- 
site directions  to  it,  are  to  be  found  numerous 
nebulae,  which  many  conceive  to  be  other  sys- 
tems of  suns,  possibly  equal  to  that  of  the 
Milky  Way  and  beyond  its  influence.  Herschel, 
La  Place,  and  other  astronomers  were  of  opinion 
that  the  nebular  hypothesis  applies  to  all  these 
stars,  star-clusters,  and  nebulae. 

So,  again,  we  find  no  contradiction  by  Evolu- 
tion of  the  words  of  the  Mosaic  account,  "  In 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth." 

5.  In  some  manner  not  explained  by  the  ad- 
vocates of  the  nebular  hypothesis  the  laws  of 
gravitation,  of  forces,  of  heat,  etc.,  began  to 
operate.  Whence  they  came  the  hypothesis 
has  offered  no  suggestion.  Evolution  did  not 
create  them ;  it  develops ;  it  moulds ;  it  accom- 

[32] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

modates.  It  presupposes  matter  and  the  laws 
of  matter,  on  which,  and  by  which  it  may  oper- 
ate. The  idea  of  Evolution  involves  a  previous 
creation  of  matter  and  the  laws  of  matter  outside 
of  and  beyond  itself.  In  the  language  of  Mr. 
Spencer  it  implies  a  **  First  Cause." 

In  this  conclusion  we  have  no  disagreement 
between  Evolution  and  the  Mosaic  account, 
namely,  the  revelation  of  a  Creation.  "  In  the 
beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth." 

6.  Evolution  in  addition  to  implying  a  Crea- 
tion involves  the  principle  of  a  distinct  beginning 
of  the  solar  system  at  a  definite  period  of  time. 
If  this  be  not  true,  and  Evolution  partakes  of 
the  attribute  of  infinity,  and  it  has  been  always 
active,  it  may  be  asked.  Why,  then,  with  in- 
finite time  in  which  to  operate,  and  infinite 
space  filled  with  matter,  does  man  find  some  of 
the  globes  —  comparatively  small  globes  —  of 
the  firmament  to  be  going  through  periods 
metaphorically  of  youth?  Why  is  Venus  prob- 
ably not  yet  fit  as  an  abode  for  life,  and  possibly 
at  that  stage  of  development  the  earth  was  when 
coal  was  formed?  Why  is  not  man  the  creature 
he  will  be  in  the  infinite  future?  To  conceive 
of  the  evolution  of  the  solar  system  having 
worked  through  infinity,  without  a  beginning  is 
to  limit  its  operations  to  a  different  scale  of  re- 
sults than  it  accomplishes  at  the  present  time. 
Thus  the  fact  that  the  frosts  and  rains  are  con- 
3  [33] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

stantly  wearing  down  all  the  elevatiohs  of  the 
earth's  surface  and  carrying  large  quantities  of 
the  detritus  to  the  valleys  and  oceans  —  the  final 
result  of  these  gravitational  and  frictional  forces 
being  the  obliteration  of  all  inequalities  of  the 
periphery  of  the  globe  —  is  strongly  corrobora- 
tive of  the  view  that  they  have  not  operated  in- 
definitely, otherwise  the  completely  rounded 
state  of  the  earth's  surface  would  have  long  since 
been  accomphshed.^  So  the  gradual  develop- 
ment of  plants  and  animals  from  lowest  forms 
to  higher  states  shown  by  the  advancing  com- 
plexity of  their  fossils  found  in  the  successive 
upward  strata  of  the  earth  furnishes  strong  prob- 
ability of  a  distinct  beginning  of  life.  Accord- 
ingly, to  suppose  the  laws  of  evolution  to  have 
had  a  definite  period  of  starting,  natural  phe- 
nomena agree  with  what  a  priori  we  should  on 
this  assumption  expect  to  exist. 

**  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven 
and  the  earth." 

7.  The  conception  of  Evolution,  that  it  re- 
quired a  definite  period  of  starting,  is  signifi- 
cantly congruous  with  the  revelation,  "  And  the 
Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the 
waters."     The    Creation   was   at   that   moment 

1  The  quantity  of  sediment  brought  down  annually  by  the 
Ganges  amounts  to  6,368,077,440  tons.  The  Mississippi  annu- 
ally discharges  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  about  2,000,000,000 
tons  of  solid  matter. 

[34] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

given  life.  The  human  mind  can  conceive  the  Al- 
mighty had  previously  made  matter,  —  the  vast, 
inconceivably  vast,  gaseous  and  nebulous  seas  of 
matter,  which  filled  all  space,  —  all  *'  The  deep." 
It  lay  before  Him  still,  silent,  inert,  cold,  and  in 
darkness.  The  elements  of  oxygen  and  hydro- 
gen existed  without  water  being  formed  ;  nitro- 
gen and  oxygen  without  atmospheric  air  result- 
ing. No  element  of  nature  had  the  power  to 
combine  with  any  other  previously  to  the  instant 
recorded  by  Moses,  when  *'  the  Spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters."  This  great 
act  of  motion  established  the  laws  of  nature. 
Every  particle  of  matter  felt  the  thrill — the 
Divine  impulse  —  and  slowly  began  to  move. 
This  movement  of  atom  against  atom  produced 
friction ;  friction  generated  electricity ;  and  elec- 
tricity or  some  one  of  its  convertible  forms,  as 
motion,  light,  heat,  magnetism,  etc.,  it  is  demon- 
strated by  chemistry,  is  the  agent  which  caused 
and  still  causes  the  formation  of  many  chemical 
compounds.  For  example,  hydrogen  and  oxy- 
gen instantly  form  water  if  an  electric  spark  is 
discharged  into  them.  Thus  matter  was  organ- 
ized. In  its  qualities,  and  at  the  very  beginning 
were  the  potentialities  of  the  universes  of  the 
present  day;  aye,  more,  probably,  the  poten- 
tiality of  all  the  universes  of  the  infinite  future. 
8.  Before  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the 
face  of  the  waters,  as  this  vast  sea  of  matter 
[35  1 


Agreement  of  Evolutioi)  and  Christianity 

filled  all  space,  equally  diffused,  with  no  more 
at  one  place  than  another,  there  existed  a  state 
of  equilibrium  without  motion  of  any  kind. 
But  the  instant  this  mass  began  to  move,  equi- 
librium was  destroyed  and  the  laws  of  gravita- 
tion operated,  and  produced  a  rotary  motion 
and  condensation.  The  laws  of  motion  allow 
movement  only  in  a  straight  line  when  there  is 
an  exact  and  complete  balance  of  all  the  forces 
operating  on  a  body.  When  any  one  force,  or 
a  number  of  forces,  operates  more  strongly  than 
others,  the  movement  of  matter  will  be  in  a  curve, 
the  resultant  of  all  the  forces.  As  forces  are 
most  rarely  found  to  be  equal,  the  almost  cer- 
tain effect  of  constant  and  uniform  motion  is 
rotation,  and  a  rushing  towards  a  common  cen- 
tre of  gravity,  just  as  water  in  a  bowl  takes  on 
a  circular  motion  when  emptying  itself  through 
a  hole  at  the  bottom.  This  movement  of  nebula 
towards  a  centre  of  gravity  produced  electricity 
by  friction  of  its  particles  and  condensation  in 
proportion  to  the  force  exerted,  and  the  nebula 
consequently  arose  in  temperature,  at  first,  as  if 
purely  gaseous,  so  that  its  central  mass  after  a 
time  reached  the  solar  stage  of  temperature; 
the  solid  and  liquid  particles  melting  and  vapor- 
izing as  the  mass  grew  hotter. 

But  light  is  always  the  result  of  adequate  heat, 
and  the  hotter  the  mass  the  intenser  the  light. 
Accordingly,  the  very  first  effect  of  the  move- 

[36] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

ment  of  the  gases,  the  nebulae,  or  the  meteor- 
ites of  primeval  space,  was  their  condensation, 
and  the  production  of  light  as  a  consequence  of 
such  condensation. 

These  scientific  facts  constitute  a  wonderful 
testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  account  of 
Creation,  wherein  it  declares  that  next  after  the 
Spirit  of  God  moved  over  the  waters,  "And 
God  said.  Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was 
lightr 

9.  There  was  now  revolving  in  space  an  in- 
conceivably great  mass  of  intensely  heated 
matter  —  molten  liquid  —  perhaps  hotter  than 
the  sun,  rushing,  swaying  with  currents,  and 
heaving  with  waves,  the  nearest  approach  in 
description  to  which  at  the  present  time  would 
be  to  compare  it  to  the  waters  of  the  ocean. 
La  Place  conceived  this  mass  under  the  action 
of  its  own  gravitation  assumed  approximately 
a  globular  form  with  a  rotation  around  its  axis. 
It  must  have  been  as  liquid  as  water  to  have  been 
able  to  take  on  a  globular  shape  as  drops  of 
water  now  do.  Gases  have  no  such  power.  In 
consequence  of  this  liquidity  the  mass,  instead 
of  remaining  spherical,  became  flattened  at  the 
poles,  and  as  the  rotation  went  on  and  the  mo- 
tion became  accelerated,  the  time  came  when 
the  centrifugal  force  at  the  equator  of  the  mass 
became  greater  than  gravity,  and  either  rings 
of  meteoric  matter  were  abandoned,  resembling 

[37] 


Agreement  of  Evolution,  and  Christianity 

the  rings  of  Saturn,  or  as  supposed  by  some 
astronomers,  the  Hquid  or  plastic  mass  became 
distorted  by  a  lump  formed  somewhere  on  its 
equator,  which  lump  finally  became  detached, 
and  revolved  around  its  primary.  Thus  it  is 
believed  by  scientists  competent  to  judge  there 
was  formed  the  great  systems  of  stars  scattered 
in  what  may  be  termed  infinite  space:  i.  The 
Galaxy  or  Milky  Way  being  one  of  them  and 
to  this  our  Sun  belongs.  2.  Subsequently  the 
solar  system  comprising  the  planets,  Mars, 
Venus,  the  Earth,  Jupiter,  etc.  3.  Later,  the 
satellites  of  the  planets,  such  as  the  moons  of 
Jupiter,  the  moons  of  Saturn,  etc. 

How  singularly  accurate  Moses  was,  when  he 
wrote,  "  And  God  said.  Let  there  be  a  firma- 
ment in  the  midst  of  the  waters  and  let  it  divide 
the  waters  from  the  waters^ 

The  aggregation  of  these  great  masses  of 
gaseous,  then  nebulous,  and  next  liquid  matter 
into  suns  freed  the  intervening  spaces,  and  thus 
created  a  firmament  in  their  midst.  And  this 
firmament  wherein  they  revolved  divided  these 
globes,  which  in  their  then  comparatively  in- 
candescent state  were  either  liquid  or  plastic 
and  properly  described  as  Waters. 

10.  The  nebular  hypothesis  implies  that  next 
after  the  evolution  of  the  great  star-clusters,  the 
Galaxy  being  one  of  them,  each  component 
member,    while    sufficiently    liquid    or   plastic, 

[38] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

would  throw  off  attendant  planets,  and  they  in 
turn  satellites.  Thus  was  formed  the  planets 
and  our  Earth  and  Moon. 

In  the  same  chronological  order  Moses  re- 
cords the  creation  of  the  Earth,  "And  God 
made  the  firmament  and  divided  the  Waters 
which  were  Under  the  firmament  from  the 
Waters  which  were  above  the  firmament.  And 
God  called  the  Firmament  Heaven." 

That  the  Earth  was  described  by  the  words, 
"  The  Waters  which  were  under  the  Firmament," 
etc.,  is  apparent  from  the  phraseology  of  the 
ninth  and  tenth  verses  following  of  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis,  "  And  God  said,  Let  the 
Waters  under  the  heaven  be  gathered  together 
unto  one  place,  and  let  the  dry  land  appear: 
and  it  was  so.  And  God  called  the  dry  land 
Earth ;  and  the  gathering  together  of  the  waters 
called  he  Seas :   and  God  saw  that  it  was  good." 

It  is  highly  probable  that  the  earth  as  soon  as 
it  cooled  sufficiently  was  completely  covered 
with  water  or  the  vapor  of  water.  In  its  then 
liquid  or  plastic  condition  it  must  have  been 
a  slightly  flattened  spheroid.  No  mountains 
reared  their  heads  and  no  depressions  for  the 
seas  existed.  In  its  present  state,  notwithstand- 
ing probably  as  much  water  has  been  absorbed 
into  the  earth  as  rolls  on  its  surface,  still  three- 
fourths  of  the  earth's  exterior  is  covered  with 
water,  and  if  the  globe  was  again  brought  to 

[39] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

a  smooth  spheroid  without  depressions  there  is 
adequate  water  to  cover  the  whole  of  its  surface. 
One  looking  at  this  great  ball  revolving  in  space 
and  completely  surrounded  with  water  would 
correctly  describe  it  as  **  waters!'  Some  geol- 
ogists are  of  opinion  that  all  the  planets  of  the 
solar  system  beyond  Mars  are  yet  in  a  liquid 
state.^ 

An  extraordinary  confirmation  of  the  liquid 
condition  of  the  earth  at  the  time  of  its  early 
separation  from  the  sun  is  the  physical  fact, 
subject  to  demonstration  in  laboratories,  that 
neither  a  gaseous  nor  a  hardened  rotating  globe 
will  become  flattened  at  its  poles  like  the  earth, 
but  only  spheres  in  a  liquid  state  and  propor- 
tionally to  the  rapidity  of  their  rotation.^ 

So  again  for  the  tenth  time  we  have  a  con- 
cordance in  period  of  events  and  manner  of 
creation,  or  evolution,  between  the  nebular  hy- 
pothesis and  the  Scriptural  account  where  it 
records,  "  And  God  made  the  firmament  and 
divided  the  waters  which  were  under  the  firma- 
ment fro7n  the  waters  which  were  above  the 
firmament.'* 

II.  The  earth  when  it  was  separated  from 
the  sun  must  have  been,  as  we  have  seen,  in 
either  a  liquid  or  plastic  state,  in  order  to  have 
taken  on  its  flattened  spheroidal  form  in  obedi- 

1  Hitchcock's  "  Elementary  Geology,"  p.  209. 

2  Idem,  p.  194. 

[40] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

ence  to  the  resultant  of  its  centripetal  and 
centrifugal  forces.  As  the  earth,  then  a  com- 
paratively small  body,  revolved  in  space  which 
was  intensely  cold,  it  radiated  its  heat  as  now, 
and  grew  colder  and  smaller.  The  poles  of  its 
axis  being  least  exposed  to  the  warming  effects 
of  the  sun,  which  was  then  hidden  behind  deep 
clouds,  experienced  the  first  condensation  of 
the  two  most  abundant  gases  —  oxygen  and 
hydrogen  —  into  water.  With  the  process  of 
cooling,  the  area  of  water  extended  on  both 
sides  towards  the  equator.  As  soon  as  water 
was  formed  the  effect  of  its  weight  caused  grav- 
itation to  draw  it  powerfully  to  the  incandescent 
mass  of  the  earth.  Great  clouds  of  steam  were 
generated  thereby,  and  ascended  into  the  upper 
atmosphere,  where  becoming  condensed  by  the 
cold  it  again  fell  as  water.  By  this  process  the 
water  continually  penetrated  farther  and  farther 
into  the  earth,  and  formed  crusts  both  by  cool- 
ing and  by  chemical  combinations.  This  was 
a  period  geologically  of  upheavals  and  sub- 
sidences. A  characteristic  of  water  is,  it  presses 
as  strongly  sidewise  as  downwards ;  so  the  phys- 
ical effect  of  the  percolation  of  water  at  one 
place  more  than  at  another  was  to  elevate  the 
land  in  proportion  to  its  subsidence.  In  this 
manner  the  dry  land  was  made  to  appear 
and  the  great  basins  of  the  seas  were  formed. 
All   the  extensive  ranges  of  mountains  border 

[41] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

and  run  parallel  to  the  oceans.  For  example, 
the  Rocky  Mountains  follow  the  coast  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean ;  the  Alleghanies,  the  Atlantic 
Ocean ;  and  the  Himalayas  skirt  the  Indian 
Ocean.  Each  attest  the  dynamic  force  of 
water  and  the  power  of  steam  in  the  upheaval 
of  land. 

Here  again  the  Mosaic  order  is  shown  to  be 
most  accurate.  For  next  after  the  formation 
of  the  earth,  it  records,  "  And  God  said.  Let  the 
waters  under  the  heaven  be  gathered  together  unto 
o fie  place yaftd  let  the  dry  land  appear.  .  .  .  And 
God  called  the  dry  land  earth ;  and  the  gather- 
ing together  of  the  waters  called  he  seas^ 

12.  Geologists  are  universally  of  opinion 
that  vegetal  life  appeared  comparatively  soon 
after  the  upheaval  of  dry  land.  As  an  instance 
showing  the  very  early  appearance  of  plants, 
it  may  be  mentioned  that  coal  is  the  product 
of  fern  trees.  This  is  known  because  the  im- 
press of  their  leaves  is  found  in  the  coal.  So 
perfect  is  their  impression  botanists  have  repro- 
duced a  simiHtude  of  those  great  primeval 
forests.  The  growth  of  such  trees  to  perfec- 
tion and  in  large  numbers  required  a  damp 
atmosphere.  Their  habitat  was  low,  and  their 
roots  were  often  submerged  in  stagnant  water. 
A  remarkable  confirmation  of  the  statement  of 
Moses  that  plant  life  appeared  before  the  sun 
is  that  the  plants  of  the  coal  measures  deposited 

[42] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

in  the  third  epoch-day,  are  of  the  soft  character 
of  wood  produced  in  a  clouded  atmosphere.  It 
is  under  intense  and  direct  sun-rays  we  find  such 
hard  woods  as  mahogany,  lignum  vitse,  etc. 

The  above  facts  agree  again  with  the  Scrip- 
tural narrative ;  "  And  God  said,  Let  the  earth 
bring  forth  grass^  herb  .  .  .  yielding  fruit  after 
his  kind,"  etc. 

13.  Astronomers  and  geologists  are  also  of 
opinion  that  in  those  early  days  of  the  earth's 
history  our  globe  was  warmer,  and  there  were 
great  seas  of  water  sweeping  over  much  more 
of  the  land  than  at  present.  Now  the  meteoro- 
logical effect  of  this  state  of  warmth  and  great 
expanse  of  water  was  the  formation  of  vast  and 
dense  clouds.  Some  of  the  clouds  hung  closely 
over  the  earth  as  thick  fogs,  and  some  extended 
probably  for  miles  upwards.  Such  may  be  the 
condition  of  the  planet  Venus  at  this  time. 
There  was  a  glow  then  as  there  is  now  on  a 
deep  cloudy  day.  A  hot  and  moist  atmos- 
phere rested  over  the  land ;  a  shaded  and  tem- 
pered light  stimulated  chemical  actions,  and 
formed  an  ideal  propagating  garden  for  plants, 
but  in  the  thick,  murky,  sight-impenetrable 
fogs  there  was  no  place  for  the  wanderings  or 
browsings  of  animals. 

Our  globe  in  the  process  of  time  cooled  more 
and  more,  the  waters  sank  deeper  and  deeper 
into  the  earth,  raising  more  dry  land,  and  form- 

[43] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  .and  Christianity 

ing  higher  mountains.  Greater  and  greater 
inequalities  of  temperature  were  also  a  conse- 
quence of  the  upheavals.  These  caused  winds 
to  spring  up.  Rifts  in  the  vast  clouds  were 
thus  made,  when,  behold  !  there  in  the  heavens, 
where  the  clouds  broke  away  from  each  other, 
were  the  Sun  and  Moon  first  seen  from  the 
earth,  although  they  had  probably  existed  un- 
known millions  of  years  before. 

"  And  God  made  two  great  lights  ;  the  greater 
light  to  rule  the  day,  and  the  lesser  light  to 
rule  the  night :  he  made  the  stars  also.  And 
God  set  them  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven 
to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  And  to  rule  over 
the  day,  and  over  the  night,  and  to  divide  the 
light  from  the  darkness,"  etc.  "  And  the  even- 
ing and  the  morning  were  th^fotirth  day." 

The  above  is  one  of  the  most  significant  facts 
of  the  Mosaic  account,  that  the  sun,  —  our  great 
Sun,  —  the  evident  source  of  all  life  and  power 
on  the  earth,  should  not  have  been  conceived 
by  an  unscientific  writer  to  have  been  made  the 
first  thing  of  all  Creation,  and  not  to  have 
been  placed  long  subsequent  to  other  apparently 
minor  events.  In  this  train  of  creational  phe- 
nomena Moses's  description  seems  to  have 
been  indited  by  one  who  had  stood  on  the 
earth  and  from  that  standpoint  narrated  the 
memorable  circumstances  as  they  would  have 
appeared  to  the  human  eye. 

[44] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

14.  From  the  fact  that  the  appearance  of  the 
sun  was  postponed  until  the  fourth  day,  and 
after  the  evolution  of  dry  land  and  the  creation 
of  plants,  and  the  further  fact  that  one  of  the 
purposes  for  which  it  was  ordained  was  "  to 
divide  the  light  from  the  darkness,"  it  will  be 
observed  that  the  word  "  light "  in  the  opening 
sentence  of  the  Mosaic  narrative,  "  And  God 
said.  Let  there  be  light:  and  there  was  light. 
And  God  saw  the  light  was  good,  and  God 
divided  the  light  from  the  darkness,"  was  not 
descriptive  of  the  light  of  the  sun.  The  light 
created  in  the  beginning  was  the  vast  luminosity 
which  arose  from  the  heating  of  the  nebulae  by 
condensation  under  the  influence  of  gravity  and 
friction.  The  light  which  divided  the  day  from 
the  night  of  our  earth  was  exclusively  from 
the   sun. 

The  ambiguity  arising  from  the  double  use 
of  the  word  "light"  has  probably  caused  per- 
plexity to  persons  unacquainted  with  the  nebular 
hypothesis  and  the  generation  of  light  by  the 
condensation  of  gases. 

15.  The  explanation  of  another  ambiguity  is 
appropriate  at  this  place,  namely,  the  constant 
use  of  the  phrases,  And  the  evening  and  the 
morning  were  the  ^^  first  day,''  or  the  *'  second 
day!'  etc.,  to  mark  the  epochs  of  Creation. 

Probably  no  part  of  the  narrative  has  been 
more    misunderstood    than    these   expressions. 

[  45] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity- 
Most  readers  erroneously  conclude,  the  above 
statements  indicate  a  day  of  twenty-four  hours 
—  a  solar  day.  That  this  was  not  the  meaning 
of  the  inspired  writer  is  evident  from  what  was 
done  during  the  fourth  epoch-day,  namely,  the 
apparent  creation  of  the  sun.  Mark,  the  earth 
had  been  formed,  the  dry  land  raised,  the  seas 
were  in  their  beds,  and  plants  were  growing. 
After  all  of  this,  "  And  God  said.  Let  there  be 
lights  in  the  firmament  of  heaven,  to  divide  the 
day  from  the  night!'  etc.  "  And  the  evening 
and  the  morning  were  X\\q  fourth  day." 

In  these  sentences  we  have  recorded  the  dis- 
tinct division  of  the  day  from  the  night  as  known 
to  men  at  this  time  —  the  day  made  by  the  light 
of  the  sun  —  that  great  orb  whose  inconceivable 
mass  and  fires  cause  the  **  signs  "  and  *'  seasons," 
the  *'  days  and  years." 

The  phraseology,  "  And  the  evening  and  the 
morning  were  the  first  day,"  etc.,  was  therefore 
certainly  not  the  division  of  time  marked  by  the 
diurnal  rotation  of  the  earth  on  its  axis,  which 
constitutes  our  day,  for  neither  the  sun  nor  the 
earth  existed  on  the  first  day  as  independent 
globes. 

Where  a  word  is  used  ambiguously  in  a  docu- 
ment, or  the  same  word,  in  a  double  sense,  the 
usual  rule  of  interpretation  adopted  by  courts 
of  law  is  to  discover  the  true  meaning  of  the 
word   in  each  case  and   harmonize   the  entire 

[46] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

account.  Under  this  method  the  phrases  the 
evening  and  the  morning  were  the  ^^firsty'  or 
**  second!'  etc.,  day,  must  have  referred  to  great 
epoch-days  in  the  evolution  of  creation,  occupy- 
ing probably  millions  of  years,  and  not  to  the 
solar  day,  which  was  not  ordained  as  a  division  of 
time  until  the  fourth  epoch-day. 

On  this  subject  of  the  time  occupied  in  the 
development  of  creation,  namely,  that  twenty- 
four  solar  hours  were  not  intended  to  define  the 
phrases,  "And  the  evening  and  the  morning 
were  the  first,  etc.  day,"  we  again  have  agree- 
ment and  not  antagonism  between  science  and 
the  revealed  order  of  Creation. 

i6.  Efforts  have  been  made  to  determine  the 
condition  of  the  earth  at  this  early  period  of  its 
development,  and  geologists  have  reached  the 
conclusion,  as  stated  before,  that  in  consequence 
of  the  obliquity  of  the  earth's  equator  to  the 
sun,  the  first  places  to  cool  sufficiently  to 
allow  the  vapor  of  water,  that  is,  steam,  to  con- 
dense into  water  were  around  the  poles  of  the 
earth's  axis.  It  is  therefore  in  the  waters  of 
the  circumpolar  ocean,  most  probably  the  Lau- 
rentian  Seas,  at  that  time  tropical  in  temperature, 
that  geologists  and  biologists  believe  was  the 
habitat  of  first  animal  life.  No  dry  land  had 
appeared  at  that  period.  But  subsequently  in 
what  is  called  the  Lower  Silurian  Age  the  Lau- 
rentian  Hills  were  uplifted.     This  belt  of  land 

[47] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

shaped  Hke  a  broad  band,  spanning  North 
America  from  Labrador  to  the  Pacific  Ocean 
at  Alaska,  was  the  first  land  to  appear  on  our 
globe.  But  already  the  strata  of  these  hills  had 
been  filled  while  they  were  previously  underwater 
with  the  fossil  remains  of  marine  life,  thus  con- 
firming once  more  the  Scriptures,  wherein  they 
declare  that  the  next  order  of  Creation  was,  "And 
God  said.  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly 
the  moving  creature  that  hath  life^'  etc. 

17.  Fossils  imbedded  in  rocks  are  like  words 
engraven  on  stone.  They  tell  of  the  earth's 
past  history  enacted  myriads  of  years  before  the 
advent  of  man.  From  them  geologists  have 
learned  that  in  the  earliest  days  of  life  the  only 
vertebrates  were  fish.  During  the  Devonian 
epoch,  the  duration  of  which  must  have  existed 
a  vast  period  of  time,  the  waters  of  the  seas  were 
literally  crowded  with  all  the  species  of  marine 
life.  In  those  times  also  great  and  rapid  changes 
were  taking  place  on  the  earth's  surface.  The 
heat  of  the  sun  was  intense  when  not  shaded  by 
clouds ;  the  crust  of  the  earth,  thin ;  water  was 
abundant,  and  constantly  penetrating  this  thin 
crust  it  came  in  contact  with  the  internal  incan- 
descent glow.  Immense  reservoirs  of  steam  were 
formed  which  by  their  pressure  threw  up  more 
plains  and  hills  and  mountains.  At  some  places 
the  oceans  were  cut  off  from  the  interior,  and  vast 
inland  seas  were  isolated,  and  in  other  directions 

[48] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

islands  were  uplifted  with  interior  depressions. 
Marine  life  was  subjected  to  vicissitudes  propor- 
tional to  the  changes  of  its  environment.  Each 
animal,  by  conscious  and  sub-conscious  efforts, 
endeavored  to  accommodate  itself  to  its  sur- 
roundings, and  in  so  doing  doubtless  many  new 
species  and  genera  were  developed,  such  as  fishes, 
sharks,  eels,  whales,  lizards,  etc. 

The  constantly  increasing  areas  of  dry  land, 
and  reciprocally  the  varying  and  diminishing 
supply  of  water  of  the  inland  seas  and  ponds, 
were  particularly  favorable  to  the  evolution  of 
an  animal,  which  could  breathe  with  gills  and 
with  lungs  as  the  occasions  required.  As  stated 
in  a  previous  chapter,  the  fossil  remains  of  this 
animal,  which  forms  a  connecting  link  between 
fish  and  amphibians,  have  been  found  in  Aus- 
tralia, and  representatives  of  the  same  creature, 
the  Ceratodus,  living  to-day,  have  been  discov- 
ered in  the  swamps  of  the  Amazon  and  the 
rivers  of  Africa. 

From  this  lizard-fish  sprang  the  amphibian- 
lizard,  and  from  the  amphibian-lizard  sprang  the 
lizard-bird.  This  lizard-bird,  the  Archaeop- 
teryx,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  fossil  con- 
tributions to  the  theory  of  Evolution  which  has 
ever  been  discovered.  Its  fossil  remains  have 
been  several  times  unearthed,  and  their  impress, 
as  stamped  most  plainly  into  the  strata,  shows 
an  animal  with  "  feathers  and  wings,  a  crocodile 
*  [49] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

jaw  with  teeth,  a  long  lizard  tail,  and  lizard's 
claws  on  its  wing  bones." 

This  is  an  unmistakable  link  between  the  liz- 
ard and  the  bird,  and  demonstrates  beyond  a 
reasonable  doubt  the  evolution  of  the  gill- 
breathing  fish  into  the  land-flying  fowl. 

And  yet  as  wonderful  is  the  fact  that  the 
Mosaic  narrative,  written  fifteen  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  should  record  the  creation  of  the 
''^  fowl  that  may  fly  above  the  earth  in  the  open 
firmament  of  heaven,"  immediately  after  the 
moving  creatures  of  the  waters. 

1 8.  The  increasing  areas  of  dry  land  and 
more  and  more  abundant  herbage  were  unceas- 
ingly preparing  the  earth  as  a  habitation  for  the 
four-footed  beasts  and  snakes.  Such  creatures 
were  dependent  on  practically  the  same  condi- 
tions that  limit  and  control  their  lives  at  the 
present  time.  In  light  of  our  knowledge  of 
cosmic  development  it  is  apparent  fowls  might 
live  where  ruminants  would  have  died.  A  bird 
may  perch,  gather  its  food  from  and  build  its 
nest  in  the  branches  of  trees  so  deeply  sub- 
merged in  water  as  to  be  prohibitive  to  land 
animals.  This  view  has  been  confirmed  by  the 
location  of  fossil  remains  of  quadrupeds  and 
creeping  things  which  appear  together,  first,  in 
the  Eocene  period  of  the  Cenozoic  Age  of  the 
earth.  This  period  was  long  after  the  advent 
of  birds. 

[50] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

These  facts  asserted  by  geologists  constitute 
another  agreement  with  the  Mosaic  narrative, 
which  places  the  appearance  of  cattle  and 
creeping  things  simultaneously  on  the  sixth 
day. 

19.  According  to  biologic  geology  and  the 
theory  of  evolution  ma7t  was  the  last  animal  to 
be  developed. 

The  Scriptural  order  of  creation  is  the  same. 

In  the  foregoing  comparison  of  the  evolution 
of  nature  and  the  Creation  as  given  in  the  First 
Book  of  Genesis  there  exist  as  a  whole  two  most 
extraordinary  similarities ;  similarity  of  order,  or 
sequence  as  to  time,  in  which  the  several  parts 
of  the  cosmos  were  created;  and  similarity  as 
to  the  manner  or  means  by  which  they  were 
evolved. 

I.  As  to  the  sequence  required  by  Evolution 
and  the  Scriptural  order  of  Creation,  if  the  fore- 
going analysis  be  correct,  there  is  not  one  item 
misplaced  in  either  account,  not  one  error  to  the 
discredit  of  either  theory.  This  agreement  of 
results  derived  from  two  independent  sources  of 
knowledge  constitutes  in  itself  a  very  strong 
probability  of  the  truth  of  each  source.  Each 
testifies  reciprocally  for  the  other.  Scientific 
Evolution  proves  the  Scriptural  account  to  be 
true;  and  the  Scriptural  account,  as  a  Revela- 
tion from  God,  proves  Scientific  Evolution  to  be 

[51] 


Agreement  of  Evolution,  and  Christianity 

true.  No  such  similarity  exists  between  false- 
hood and  falsehood,  or  falsehood  and  truth,  but 
only  between  truth  and  truth. 

If  each  of  the  events  of  creation  as  recorded 
by  Moses  were  so  independent  as  in  no  manner 
to  be  related  to  one  another,  or  one  not  to  be 
necessarily  precedent  to  another,  the  chance 
of  stating,  say,  fifteen  such  independent  events 
in  their  correct  order,  without  knowledge  to 
guide  their  narration,  would  be  more  than  one 
million  times  a  million  in  favor  of  a  mistake. 

But  in  the  Mosaic  order  there  are  at  least 
seven  events  so  far  independent  that  none  of 
them  give  the  clue  of  sequence  for  the  follow- 
ing events:  namely,  that  plant  life  should  have 
been  created  before  the  sun  appeared ;  that  the 
sun  should  not  have  appeared  until  the  fourth 
day,  instead  of  being  accounted  the  first  of  all 
things ;  that  the  earth  should  not  have  been 
considered  the  first  to  have  been  created  even 
before  the  sun,  and  the  sun  and  stars  all  formed 
subsequently  and  as  attendants  on  the  earth; 
that  fishes  should  have  been  made  next  to 
plants ;  then  fowls,  then  cattle,  and  man  last 
instead  of  first,  as  an  unlearned  and  vain  man 
would  have  ranked  himself. 

Now  when  there  are  seven  independent  facts 
to  be  narrated,  and  there  is  only  one  correct 
order  of  narration,  there  are  five  thousand  and 
thirty-nine  chances  they  will  be  stated  in  an  in- 

[52] 


The  Mosaic  Narrative  of  the  Creation 

correct  manner  to  one  chance  that  they  will  be 
stated  properly,  if  the  narrator  has  no  knowl- 
edge or  clue.  This  mathematical  computation 
gives  some  idea  of  the  pitfalls  which  lay  in  the 
path  of  the  sacred  writer  when  he  staked  the 
reputation  of  his  Revelation  on  the  order  ot 
events  as  he  narrated  them.  But  when  the 
probabiHties  against  the  happening  of  an  event 
are  as  great  as  those  mentioned  above,  and  are 
all  overcome,  and  a  true  record  claiming  to  be 
inspired  is  written,  the  candid  mind  is  com- 
pelled to  yield  belief  to  the  justice  of  the  claim 
of  revelation  in  proportion  to  the  chances  over- 
come. There  are  few  subjects  in  life  with  five 
thousand  and  thirty-nine  chances  in  their  favor 
to  only  one  against  them  to  which  men  do  not 
give  their  implicit  assent. 

2.  No  less  remarkable  is  the  manner  in  which 
the  Scriptures  declare  the  Creation  was  evolved. 
When  Moses  wrote,  some  fifteen  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  there  was  not,  as  far  as  is  known, 
any  mathematical  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 
gravitation,  and  of  their  effects  in  causing 
bodies  to  revolve  in  orbits,  and  in  producing 
condensation  of  gases;  of  electricity  in  bring- 
ing about  the  chemical  union  of  the  elements; 
no  telescopes  to  inform  of  the  rotation  of  suns 
on  their  axes,  and  the  formation  of  rings  or 
lumps  on  their  equators,  and  when  the  cen- 
trifugal  force  of  globes   became   greater  than 

[53] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  ,and  Christianity 

their  centripetal  force  to  cause  planets  or  satel- 
lites to  be  abandoned  to  independent  existences. 

And  yet  every  one  of  these  phenomena 
enumerated  in  this  chapter,  and  other  physical 
facts,  omitted  as  not  being  essential  to  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  argument,  are  implied,  and 
absolutely  involved  in  the   Mosaic  Cosmogony. 

When  it  required  the  mathematical  genius  of 
La  Place,  surrounded  with  the  appliances  of 
modern  research  and  inspired  with  the  re- 
corded learning  of  all  the  ages,  to  propound 
the  Nebular  Hypothesis  which  Moses  gave 
to  the  world  in  its  integrity  some  thirty-three 
hundred  years  before,  it  would,  indeed,  seem  on 
ordinary  principles  of  human  reasoning,  that 
the  Mosaic  Narrative  has  been  proved  by  this 
same  Nebular  Hypothesis  to  have  been  dictated 
by  superhuman  knowledge. 


[54] 


SPECIAL   CREATIONS   OR  EVOLUTION 

THE  Christian  world  received  a  great 
shock  when  the  theory  of  Evolution  was 
announced.  Men  had  been  so  accustomed  to 
believe  that  the  Mosaic  narrative  implied  special 
and  distinct  creative  acts  by  God  of  the  great 
events  of  the  Cosmos  in  each  day  of  twenty-four 
hours,  for  six  consecutive  days,  they  regarded 
the  idea  of  the  evolution  of  this  earth  stretch- 
ing over  millions  of  years,  and  the  creation  of 
vegetal  and  animal  life  occupying  eons  in  its 
development  from  lower  orders  as  rank  heresy 
contrary  to  the  inspired  Word  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, and  therefore  to  be  rejected  as  attacking 
the  foundations  of  Christian  belief. 

Naturally  men  thus  assailed  in  their  most 
cherished  opinions  would  be  indignant,  and  in 
proportion  to  their  indignation  they  would  deny, 
and  deny  without  calm  and  adequate  investiga- 
tion of  the  merits  of  the  new  doctrine.  But  not- 
withstanding the  denials  of  theologians,  many 
students  of  nature  have  been  ceaselessly  at 
work  investigating  every  department  of  phys- 
ics, excavating  the  strata  of  the  earth's  crust, 
making  extended   and  reliable  experiments  in 

[55] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity- 
biology,  and  doing  all  other  things  tending  to 
unfold  the  order  of  events  in  the  great  past, 
until  so  considerable  an  amount  of  cumulative 
evidence  has  been  obtained  that  nearly  all  who 
have  entered  upon  the  study  have  been  con- 
vinced that  the  Great  First  Cause  has  produced 
the  universe  and  all  things  therein  contained, 
not  by  special  creations  of  each  revolving 
sphere,  and  of  each  family  of  plants  and  animals 
in  six  solar  days,  but  bythe  creation  of  primeval 
matter,  by  bestowing  on  it  certain  qualities,  and 
by  the  establishment  of  laws  to  govern  its 
motions.  It  is  submitted  that  the  time  has 
about  come  when  the  Christian,  believing  as  he 
must  that  nature  and  the  Scriptures  both  pro- 
ceed from  God,  and  therefore  are  harmonious, 
should  lay  aside  all  prejudice  and  all  fear,  and 
intelligently  and  learnedly  investigate  the  won- 
derful story  of  Creation  narrated  in  the  first 
chapters  of  Genesis,  for  the  purpose  of  ascer- 
taining if  there  is  in  fact  any  antagonism  be- 
tween its  true  meaning  and  what  is  accepted  as 
the  manner  of  creation  by  almost  all  honest 
students  of  science. 

I.  Probably  the  Mosaic  account  in  having  so 
distinctly  and  repeatedly  described  the  order  of 
creation  as  having  taken  place  on  the  "  first," 
**  second,"  "  third,"  etc.,  days,  has  done  more 
than  by  any  other  phrases  in  the  narrative  to 
prejudice  the  Christian  mind  against  the  accep- 
[  56  ] 


Special  Creations  or  Evolution 

tance  of  the  evolution  theory  —  because  this 
theory  requires  vast  numbers  of  years  for  the 
development  of  each  period  of  creation. 

Now  it  is  herein  urged  the  inspired  Word 
does  not  describe  a  day  of  twenty-four  hours  in 
marking  the  eras  of  creation,  and  for  the  argu- 
ment to  be  conclusive  to  Christian  judgment 
this  fact  should  be  proved  from  the  narrative 
of  Moses  and  not  from  any  nebular  or  other 
physical  hypothesis.  It  is  therefore  necessary 
in  order  to  make  each  subdivision  of  the  sub- 
ject complete,  to  reiterate  somewhat  the  argu- 
ment of  a  portion  of  the  previous  chapter.^ 

During  the  first  two  creative  days,  or  periods, 
Genesis  declares  :  "  The  earth  was  without  form, 
and  void;  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of 
the  deep:  and  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon 
the  face  of  the  waters.  And  God  said,  Let  there 
be  light:  and  there  was  light.  And  God  saw 
the  light,  that  it  was  good  :  and  God  divided  the 
light  from  the  darkness.  And  God  called  the 
light  day,  and  the  darkness  he  caljed  night: 
and  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the 
first  day.  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  a  firma- 
ment  in   the    midst  of  the  waters:   and   let   it 

1  Saint  Augustine,  Origen,  and  some  of  the  other  fathers  of 
the  early  Christian  church,  Professors  Hahn,  De  Luc,  Lee,  and 
Wait,  of  England,  and  Silliman  and  Guyot,  of  the  United 
States,  were  of  opinion  that  the  word  "  day  "  in  the  Mosaic 
narrative  represented  periods  of  indefinite  length.  —  Hitch- 
cock's "  Elementary  Geology." 

[57] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

divide  the  waters  from  the  waters.  And  God 
made  the  firmament,  and  divided  the  waters 
which  were  under  the  firmament  from  the 
waters  which  were  above  the  firmament:  and 
it  was  so.  And  God  called  the  firmament 
Heaven:  and  the  evening  and  the  morning 
were  the  second  day.  .  .  .  And  God  said,  Let 
there  be  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven, 
to  divide  th«  day  from  the  night;  and  let 
let  them  be  for  signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for 
daySy  and  years.  And  let  them  be  for  lights  in 
the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to  give  light  upon 
the  earth:  and  it  was  so.  And  God  made  two 
great  lights ;  the  greater  light  to  rule  the  day, 
and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night :  the  stars 
also.  And  God  set  them  in  the  firmament  of 
the  heaven  to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  And 
to  rule  over  the  day,  and  over  the  night,  and 
to  divide  the  light  from  the  darkness  :  and  God 
saw  that  it  was  good.  And  the  evening  and 
the  morning  were  the  fourth  day." 

A,  The^division  of  time  composed  of  twenty- 
four  hours  defined  and  understood  at  present  as 
a  day,  is  due  to  the  rotation  of  the  earth  on  its 
axis,  thus  presenting  its  entire  surface  to  the 
sun  in  twenty-four  hours.  The  portion  of  its 
sphere  opposite  the  sun  we  call  day,  the  por- 
tion not  opposite,  night.  That  such  a  period, 
namely,  the  solar  day,  was  not  intended  to  be 
described  by  Moses  by  the  expression,  "  And 

[58] 


Special  Creations  or  Evolution 

the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first 
day,"  is  evident,  because  it  was  not  until  the 
second  day  that  God  said,  "  Let  there  be  a  fir- 
mament in  the  midst  of  the  waters  (spheres), 
and  let  it  divide  the  waters  from  the  waters. 
And  God  made  the  firmament  and  divided 
the  waters  which  were  under  the  firmament  (the 
earth)  from  the  waters  which  were  above  the 
firmament  (stars) ;  and  it  was  so.  And  God 
called  the  firmament  Heaven.  And  the  even- 
ing and  the  morning  were  the  second  day." 

Now  the  meaning  of  the  word  "firmament" 
is  the  space  in  which  the  stars  and  sun  re- 
volve. It  was  called  by  Moses  "  Heaven."  It 
is  still  called  "The  Heavens."  One  of  the 
functions  of  the  firmament  was  to- "divide  the 
waters  from  the  waters,"  that  is,  sphere  from 
sphere,  to  allow  space  in  which  these  spheres 
might  revolve  in  their  orbits  and  rotate  on  their 
axes.  If  there  was  no  space  in  which  they 
might  rotate,  for  the  firmament  was  not  created 
until  the  second  day,  and  as  the  day^  of  twenty- 
four  hours  is  due  to  the  rotation  of  the  earth  on 
its  axis,  it  is  plain  the  expression,  "And  the 
evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first  day,'' 
is  not  to  be  interpreted  as  a  day  of  twenty- 
four  hours. 

B.  The  declaration,  "And  God  said,  Let 
there  be  a  firmament  in  the  midst  of  the  waters," 
that  is  in  the  midst  of  the  spheres,  "  And  God 

[59] 


Agreement  of  Evolution,  and  Christianity 

made  the  firmament  and  divided  the  waters 
which  were  under  the  firmament "  (that  is,  the 
earth,  for  the  earth  and  heavens  are  often 
spoken  of  as  the  heavens  above  and  the  earth 
beneath),  "from  the  waters  which  were  above 
the  firmament,"  is  explicable  only  on  the  theory 
that  the  spheres  or  stars,  including  the  earth, 
were  divided  from  one  another  into  separate 
orbs  on  the  second  day. 

From  the  definition  of  the  solar  day,  namely, 
the  rotation  by  the  earth  on  its  axis,  there  could 
have  been  no  such  day  until  after  the  creation 
of  this  second  period  in  which  the  earth  took  on 
its  independent  rotation.  So  that  the  expres- 
sion, *•  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were 
the  first  day"  could  not  have  been  used  for  a 
day  of  twenty-four  hours. 

C.  To  define  the  expressions.  And  the  even- 
ing and  the  morning  were  the  ''first,''  "  second" 
etc.,  day,  as  solar  days  is  antagonistic  to  the  crea- 
tions of  the  fourth  day. 

"  And  God  said.  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  fir- 
mament of  the  heaven  to  divide  the  day  from  the 
night"  ..."  and  for  days,  and  years ;  And  let 
them  be  for  hghts  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven 
to  give  light  upon  the  earth :  .  .  .  And  to  rule 
over  the  day,  and  over  the  night,  and  to  divide 
the  light  from  the  darkness :  .  .  .  And  the  even- 
ing and  the  morning  were  \\\t.  fourth  day!' 

It  is  asserted  that  during  this  fourth  day  or 
[60] 


Special  Creations  or  Evolution 

epoch  the  first  solar  day  was  created  as  we 
know  it.  Such  is  the  unequivocal  statement 
that  God  then  made  lights  to  divide  the  day 
from  the  nighty  and  to  rule  over  the  day  and 
over  the  night. 

The  interpretation  of  the  phrases  ^' first  day" 
*^  second  day  y'  and  '^  third  day"  etc.,  as  great 
epochs  of  creation,  and  not  as  solar  days,  which 
were  established  only  in  \h.Q  fourth  day  or  epoch, 
harmonizes  the  entire  account,  and  when  an 
interpretation  performs  correctly  this  office  all 
sensible  men  on  all  occasions  adopt  it.  "  One 
day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  and 
a  thousand  years  as  one  day." 

D.  The  expression  in  the  first  creative  period, 
"And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light  and  there 
was  light.  And  God  saw  the  light  was  good, 
and  God  divided  the  light  from  the  darkness^* 
will  now  be  observed  to  refer  to  a  different 
character  of  light  from  that  of  the  sun,  probably 
to  the  luminosity  of  the  condensing  gases  or 
nebulae,  because  it  is  most  distinctly  stated,  it 
was  not  until  the  fourth  day  the  sun  and  moon 
appeared,  and  one  of  their  functions  was  "  to 
divide  the  light  from  the  darkness."  It  is  urged, 
therefore,  that  the  true  interpretation  of  the 
Mosaic  narrative  does  not  set  limited  periods 
marked  by  the  diurnal  rotation  of  the  earth  on 
its  axis  as  the  divisions  of  time  in  which  Al- 
mighty God  made  His  several  creations.  On 
[61] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

the  contrary,  it  is  contended  herein,  such  an 
explanation  is  antagonistic  to  the  plain  meaning 
of  His  Holy  Word,  and  the  assignment  of  long 
periods  of  time,  occupying  millions  of  years  in 
each  epoch,  is  entirely  compatible  with  the 
Divine  Revelation  of  Creation. 

E.  The  fourth  commandment  of  the  Deca- 
logue announced  by  Moses  from  Mount  Sinai  is 
in  these  words,  '*  Remember  that  thou  keep 
holy  the  Sabbath-day.  Six  days  shalt  thou 
labor,  and  do  all  that  thou  hast  to  do ;  but  the 
seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God. 
In  it  thou  shalt  do  no  manner  of  work;  thou, 
and  thy  son,  and  thy  daughter,  thy  man-servant, 
and  thy  maid-servant,  thy  cattle,  and  the  stranger 
that  is  within  thy  gates.  For  in  six  days  the 
Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea  and  all 
that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day: 
wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  seventh  day, 
and  hallowed  it." 

A  cursory  reading  of  this  commandment 
would  seem  to  indicate  from  its  comparison  to 
the  days  assigned  the  Israelites  respectively  for 
labor  and  for  hallowed  rest  that  the  Creation 
was  made  by  God  in  six  solar  days  of  twenty- 
four  hours  each.  This  interpretation  has  been 
advanced  to  the  Christian  conscience  as  an  argu- 
ment against  the  theory  of  Evolution  which 
requires  immense  periods  of  time  for  the  de- 
velopment  of   the    heaven    and   earth.      It   is, 

[62] 


special  Creations  or  Evolution 

therefore,  important  for  those  who  beh'eve  the 
Scriptures  to  be  inerrant  to  determine  what  is 
the  correct  signification  of  the  words  used  in 
the  commandment. 

a.  A  cardinal  rule  adopted  by  all  bodies 
having  the  ascertainment  of  the  meaning  of 
writings  is  to  investigate  the  circumstances  giv- 
ing rise  to  and  surrounding  the  document,  thus 
placing  the  judge,  as  far  as  possible  mentally, 
under  the  influences  which  afTected  the  writer  — 
in  a  word,  to  reproduce  the  occasion.  This 
rule  has  its  reason  in  the  fact  that  men  usually 
act  in  the  same  manner  when  impelled  by 
similar  causes. 

The  Israelites  had  not  long  before  the  delivery 
of  this  commandment  escaped  from  Egypt  by 
passing  between  the  rolled-up  water  walls  of 
the  Red  Sea  and  were  entering  upon  their  long 
journey  towards  the  Promised  Land.  For  such 
a  multitude  of  men,  women,  and  children,  with- 
out stores  and  without  habitations,  in  a  barren 
wilderness  to  survive  pestilence,  famine,  and 
anarchy  in  the  forty  years  of  wanderings  before 
them,  the  Lord  God,  who  was  directing  their 
ways  and  supplying  their  necessities,  gave  to 
them  through  Moses  many  laws  and  ordinances 
applicable  to  their  physical,  social,  and  moral 
conduct  These  are  enumerated  in  the  Second 
Book  of  Moses  called  Exodus. 

To  wax  strong  in  body  and  mind ;  to  main- 

[  63  ] 


Agreement  of  Evolution^ and  Christianity 

tain  their  numbers  adequately  to  subdue  the 
warlike  people  which  held  the  country  around 
about  the  river  Jordan,  and  whom  they  were 
to  meet  in  battle ;  to  acknowledge  and  worship 
and  love  gratefully  the  God  who  was  making 
them  His  peculiar  people,  it  was  necessary 
among  other  things,  to  establish  periods  for 
labor  and  rest;  and  as  the  most  appropriate 
time  for  worship,  to  consecrate  the  days  of  rest 
to  the  glory  and  adoration  of  Jehovah. 

b.  The  Israelites  at  the  time  of  the  delivery 
of  the  Ten  Commandments  were  acquainted 
with  the  order  of  Creation  as  narrated  by  Moses 
in  the  First  Chapter  of  Genesis.  This  occupied 
what  we  have  called  six  epoch-days. 

c.  The  language  often  adopted  throughout  the 
Old  Testament  is  highly  metaphorical.  Bodily 
parts  and  human  actions  are  frequently  attrib- 
uted to  God.  He  is  described  as  possessing  a 
mouth,  a  terrible  voice,  an  outstretched  arm ;  as 
having  walked  in  the  garden  of  Eden ;  as  a  man 
of  war ;  to  have  come  to  see  the  Tower  of  Babel ; 
to  have  laughed,  and  to  have  awakened  as  one 
out  of  a  sleep ;  to  have  spoken  face  to  face  with 
Moses ;  to  have  tempted  Abraham ;  to  have 
repented  of  having  made  man,  etc.,  etc. 

d.  Two  of  the  most  effective  methods  of  argu- 
mentative persuasion  are  by  metaphor  and  by 
simile.  To  endow  inanimate  things  or  super- 
natural ideas  with  animal  attributes,  and  partic- 

[64] 


special  Creations  or  Evolution 

ularly  with  qualities  similar  to  those  possessed 
by  humanity  is  a  highly  attractive  manner  of 
presentation  of  the  thought,  and  sometimes  more 
effective  than  a  metaphysical  disquisition  or  log- 
ical argument. 

So  with  the  employment  of  similes  and  com- 
parisons. The  use  of  an  appropriate  simile  is 
delightfully  fascinating.  Its  concreteness  brings 
out  in  bold  relief  the  idea  to  be  enforced,  and  its 
analogy  to  the  subject  discussed  often  consti- 
tutes a  persuasive  appeal. 

e.  In  this  commandment  there  are  found  both 
of  these  styles  of  rhetorical  expression.  It  em- 
ploys the  metaphorical  method  in  stating  that 
God  "  rested  "  the  seventh  day.  This  was  an  ex- 
ceedingly powerful  manner  to  enforce  the  duty 
of  rest  on  the  Israelites.  It  asserted  that  their 
Lord  God  who  had  performed  such  wonders  for 
them,  who  was  daily  supplying  their  necessities, 
and  was  employing  the  terrible  forces  of  nature 
as  an  attendant  on  His  presence  on  Mount  Sinai, 
"  rested  "  after  His  work  of  Creation,  and  they 
were  called  upon  to  imitate  Him.  Such  an 
appeal  —  the  imitation  of  the  Almighty  —  must 
have  affected  their  hearts  as  no  other  considera- 
tion could  have  done. 

This  statement   that    God  *'  rested "  was,  of 

course,  a  metaphor.     It  is  perfectly  inadmissible 

to  the  Christian  mind  to  believe  that  God,  the 

Creator  of  all  Things ;  that  He  whose  attributes 

S  [65] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

are  omnipotence  and  omniscience ;  that  a  Being 
without  body  or  parts  "  rested,"  as  a  tired  mor- 
tal would  rest,  after  the  completion  of  the  Crea- 
tion. We  have,  therefore,  a  part  of  this  com- 
mandment delivered  in  a  metaphorical  style, 
and  a  strong  argument  is  thereby  presented  that 
its  other  parts  are  not  necessarily  to  be  con- 
strued in  a  "literal"  manner,  if  such  literal 
interpretation  causes  it  to  clash  with  known 
facts. 

/.  It  so  happened  that  the  evolution  of  the 
Cosmos  was  distinguished  by  six  very  distinct 
phenomena,  and  were  described  in  the  Mosaic 
narrative  as  created  on  successive  "  days,"  al- 
though plainly,  as  we  have  shown,  not  solar 
days  of  twenty-four  hours  each.  But  six  solar 
days  were  to  be  considered,  under  the  provi- 
dence of  Jehovah,  as  affecting  the  Israelites  in 
their  human  relations  and  activities,  as  a  period 
for  labor,  and  one  day,  the  seventh,  for  rest  and 
worship  of  Himself.  It  was  a  wise  and  humane 
ordinance,  adapted  to  the  physical  needs  of  men 
then,  as  now,  —  for  all  men  after  a  period  of  six 
days  of  toil  long  for  one  day  of  rest,  and  again 
at  the  expiration  of  the  latter  are  so  revived  they 
are  anxious  to  return  to  their  labors. 

What    more    skilful    method    of    giving   the 

greatest  possible  effect  to  the  commandment,  of 

bringing  it  most  energetically  to  the  minds  and 

consciences  of  the  Israelites,  than  to  adopt  the 

[66] 


Special  Creations  or  Evolution 

beautiful  and  effective  simile  between  the  periods, 
or  creative  days,  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  the 
secular  days  in  which  man  should  alternately 
labor  and  rest;  using,  as  is  most  frequently  the 
case  in  similes,  a  word  with  a  double  significa- 
tion, as  was  indeed  done  with  the  same  word  in 
the  Mosaic  narrative.  In  this  instance  it  was 
the  word  "  day,"  appHcable  in  one  sense  to  the 
great  epoch-days,  each  of  unknown  millions  of 
years  in  which  God's  Creation  had  been  evolv- 
ing; and  suitable  in  its  other  meaning  to  the 
short  periods  of  twenty-four  hours,  the  limit  of 
man's  feeble  capacity  for  labor. 

A  further  corroborating  evidence  of  the  im- 
mense and  indefinite  length  of  the  creative  days 
as  used  in  this  commandment  is  the  length  of 
the  "seventh  day,"  wherein  the  Creator  rested, 
and  which  "  seventh  day,"  as  far  as  knowledge 
or  revelation  has  been  vouchsafed  to  man,  has 
not  yet  terminated. 

There  is  nothing,  therefore,  in  the  fourth  com- 
mandment expressed  or  implied  which  is  contra- 
dictory to  an  interpretation  which  harmonizes  it 
with  all  the  phenomena  of  nature  and  the  deduc- 
tions of  geologic  science. 

2.  If  the  Inspired  Word  of  God  had  said  dis- 
tinctly, each  individual  nebula  and  sun  and 
planet  and  plant  and  animal  were  special  crea- 
tions, the  writer  would  accept  it  as  unqualifiedly 
true,  believing  it  was  within  His  almighty  power 
[67  1 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

and  will  to  have  made  them  in  that  manner. 
But  after  a  careful  consideration  of  the  Inspired 
narrative  no  such  declaration  is  believed  to  have 
been  made,  but  on  the  contrary  the  text  taken 
in  its  entirety  indicates  a  progressive  develop- 
ment and  not  distinct  creations. 

A.    Special  creations  indicative  of  weakness. 

The  Christian  mind  regards  the  power  of  God 
to  be  infinite,  all-wise,  omnipotent.  There  is 
nothing  beyond  the  scope  of  His  Mightiness. 
Now  humanly  thinking,  it  is  an  evidence  of 
capacity  to  generalize.  An  inferior  intelligence 
passes  on  each  subject  separately;  a  superior 
mind  groups  them  under  classes.  A  savage 
makes  separate  arrow  after  arrow  with  his  own 
hands  ;  the  intelligent  mechanic  constructs  a 
machine  to  turn  out  hundreds  of  gross  daily. 
To  suppose  Almighty  God  required  a  solar  day 
or  an  eon  in  which  to  make  light,  another  such 
period  to  form  the  firmament  and  divide  the 
stars  from  one  another,  another  to  produce  vege- 
tal life,  and  another  beasts  and  man,  is  putting  a 
very  decided  Hmit  to  the  capacity  of  Omnipo- 
tence. The  a  priori  Christian  conception  of 
God  should  be  rather  that  all  of  these  things 
could  have  been  made  by  one  fiat.  It  is  an  im- 
peachment of  His  infinite  omniscience  to  imag- 
ine He  made  light  experimentally  and  waited  to 
see  if  it  was  good  before  He  dared  to  proceed 
with  the  next  order  of  creation.  The  ''light'* 
[68] 


special  Creations  or  Evolution 

pleased  Him,  and  He  simply  declared  it  was 
"  good." 

How  much  greater  the  power  and  wisdom  to 
have  brought  matter  out  of  nothing,  to  have 
endowed  it  with  its  inconceivably  numerous  qual- 
ities, and  to  have  estabHshed  for  its  governance 
the  harmonious  laws  and  self-development  which 
rule  things,  physical  and  metaphysical,  all  by 
a  single  decree,  knowing  the  evolution  of  the 
utmost  future  in  the  first  instant  of  creation? 
This  explanation  satisfies  the  words  of  the  text, 
and  harmonizes  them  with  all  the  knowledge 
received  from  astronomy,  geology,  and  biology. 
Such  a  harmonizing  method  of  interpretation  is 
universally  adopted  by  the  highest  judicial  tri- 
bunals of  all  enh'ghtened  countries. 

Words  used  at  periods  far  distant  in  time 
from  the  present,  whose  meanings  may  have 
changed  in  both  a  scientific  and  popular  signifi- 
cation, and  especially  when  written  in  a  foreign 
language,  should  never  be  allowed  to  destroy 
the  value  of  their  own  narrative  by  being  ren- 
dered in  such  a  cramped  sense  as  to  contradict 
the  same  words  used  in  another  sense  in  a 
different  place,  or  to  antagonize  known  facts. 

B.   Periods  of  Creation. 

It  is,  however,  plain  from  the  inspired  narra- 
tive, that  creation  as  it  exists  at  present  was 
not  completed  at  one  instant.  There  was  suc- 
cession  of  created   things    and    succession    of 

[69] 


Agreement  of  Evolution;  and  Christianity 

periods  of  creation.  If  the  Christian  evolution- 
ary theory  be  adopted,  namely,  that  God  —  the 
God  revealed  by  Moses  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
represented  by  Jesus  Christ  in  the  New  Testament 
—  made  matter  by  His  own  power,  and  endowed 
it  with  its  qualities  and  laws,  then  each  day 
described  in  the  First  Chapter  of  Genesis  con- 
stituted a  great  epoch  of  evolution  so  conspic- 
uous as  in  a  popular  account  to  deserve  special 
mention,  and  the  fact  of  such  eras  being  enu- 
merated as  the  "  first,"  or  "  second,"  day,  etc. ; 
or  that  certain  very  important  things  were 
respectively  created  in  them,  is  not  conclusive 
that  such  periods  were  definite  days  of  twenty- 
four  hours,  or  the  creations  described  to  have 
taken  place  therein  were  special  creations,  in- 
stead of  being  eras  distinguished  by  the  evolu- 
tion of  worlds  from  primordial  matter  in  the 
eariier  periods,  and  the  evolution  of  vegetal  and 
animal  life  from  simpler  and  less  homogeneous 
forms  in  the  later  epochs;  and  each  brought 
about  by  and  contained  in  the  original  creative 
act  described  by  the  words,  "  And  the  Spirit  of 
God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters." 

When  any  interpretation  given  to  an  enumera- 
tion of  days  and  to  creations  within  such  days 
is  opposed  to  all  the  observed  facts  of  the 
formations  and  strata  of  the  earth's  crust  and  to 
all  the  fossil  life  imbedded  therein,  such  in- 
terpretation should  not  be  adopted,  except  in 

[70] 


special  Creations  or  Evolution 

obedience  to  the  most  unequivocal  language  ; 
and  when  the  language  is  equivocal  that  mean- 
ing should  be  assigned  to  it  which  agrees  with 
all  the  ascertained  knowledge  on  the  subject. 
If  this  logicalmanner  of  interpretation  be  adopted 
there  is  no  warrant  in  the  Holy  Word  to  exclude 
the  hypothesis  that  God  with  His  unHmited 
power  impressed  in  the  Beginning  on  both  in- 
organic and  organic  matter  the  ability  to  evolve 
into  the  beautiful  and  wonderful  Cosmos,  with 
possibly  the  high  destiny  yet  before  it,  in  the 
infinite  future,  to  surpass  its  present  develop- 
ment as  much  as  it  now  does  the  earliest  eras 
of  its  existence. 

C,   The  verb  **  Create." 

The  phrase,  ^*  In  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heaven  and  the  earth,"  does  not  necessarily 
imply  a  special  creation  of  each  of  the  things 
therein  contained.  The  verb  "  Create  "  has  no 
other  signification  than  the  expression  of  the 
the  idea  **  to  bring  into  existence."  It  does 
not  declare  the  manner  of  production,  the  agen- 
cies employed,  or  the  number  of  processes  gone 
through  with,  but  simply  the  idea  "  of  causing 
to  exist." 

A  man  who  creates  a  machine  and  by  it 
turns  out  ten  thousand  nails  a  day  is  as  veritably 
a  creator  of  such  nails  as  the  mechanic  who 
creates  each  individual  nail  by  blows  with  his 
hammer  on  the  anvil. 

[71] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

D.   The  laws  of  nature. 

Creation  consists  not  only  of  matter  but  of 
the  physical  laws  governing  it.  Matter  in  motion 
without  laws  would  be  chaos. 

Evolution  has  had  no  influence  on  the  qual- 
ities of  matter  or  on  the  laws  of  nature.  God 
made  them  perfect  in  the  beginning.  They 
never  change.  So  far  as  we  know,  or  physics 
teaches,  they  never  have  changed.  When  "  the 
Spirit  of  God  moved  over  the  waters "  the 
Christian  understands  it  was  at  that  instant  they 
were  ordained,  perfect  in  all  their  details,  and 
beyond  comprehension  in  their  complexity  and 
harmony.  All  evolutionists  agree  they  are  im- 
mutable. In  this  sense  God  created  all  things 
in  the  Beginning.  He  had  the  omnipotence  in 
the  very  Beginning  to  endow  matter  under  the 
influence  of  these  laws  with  the  power  to  evolve 
this  marvellous  Cosmos,  and  the  omniscience  to 
know  their  utmost  results  in  the  future.  To 
possess  these  attributes  of  power  and  knowledge 
demonstrates  higher  capacity  than  a  series  of 
special  creations.  To  believe  in  Evolution  we 
glorify  God ;  to  adhere  to  Special  Creations  we 
attach  the  limit  to  His  power  which  usually 
characterizes  inferiority. 

3.  An  argument  of  much  weight  is  the  improb- 
ability that  an  all  wise  and  merciful  God  would 
have  specially  created  beings  of  such  limited 
capacities  and  subject   to   so   much   pain  and 

[72] 


special  Creations  or  Evolution 

misery  as  characterize  the  entire  animal  creation. 
It  has  been  said  by  a  loving  field  naturalist, 
almost  all  wild  life  ends  in  tragedy.  We  know 
animals  are  the  victims  of  nearly  all  the  diseases 
affecting  mankind,  and  when  attacked  they 
must  suffer  the  same  pains.  To  suppose  God 
made  them,  and  they  never  fell  by  the  Sin  of 
Disobedience,  to  exist  in  so  imperfect  and 
miserable  a  state  as  they  are  subject  to,  is  to 
the  moral  sense  of  many  good  men  a  very  dis- 
tressing thought,  and  irreconcilable  with  the 
infinite  love  they  believe  is  an  attribute  of  their 
Heavenly  Father. 

The  conception  of  Special  Creations  seems 
necessarily  to  imply  God  has  decreed  this  life 
should  be  to  all  His  creatures  a  life  of  physical 
disease  and  consequent  on  it  of  mental  distress. 
Men  oppressed  with  the  tortures  of  fevers,  of 
the  pains  of  malignant  sores,  of  the  malforma- 
tions of  bodily  structure,  have  often  cried  out 
against  their  lot.  There  is  no  reason  to  sup- 
pose brutes  would  not  make  the  same  com- 
plaints if  they  had  the  power  of  speech.  Special 
creation,  therefore,  apparently  involves  either 
an  imperfectness  of  creation  in  God,  which  is 
entirely  inadmissible,  or  a  want  of  pity  for 
sufferings,  which  is  equally  false.  But  the 
hypothesis  of  Evolution  largely  relieves  the  sub- 
ject of  all  these  difficulties. 

Evolution  of  animal  life  is  based  primarily 
[73l 


Agreement  of  Evolution;  and  Christianity 

on  Free  Will  —  a  free  will  to  make  efforts  to 
avoid  dangers  and  to  pursue  the  advantageous. 
A  broad  conception  of  Evolution  is,  Almighty 
God  has  chosen  to  create  primordial  life,  and 
to  ordain  that  from  the  smallest  beginnings  it 
should  develop  by  its  own  capacities  into  higher 
and  higher  states  until  it  has  reached  its  present 
complex  and  heterogeneous  condition  —  its  pres- 
ent state  being  only  one  position  and  one  in- 
stant in  its  evolution,  and  which  will  be,  in  the 
far  future,  surpassed  by  higher  and  still  higher 
developments  beyond  the  thought  of  man  to 
conceive. 

The  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number  is 
the  legend  on  the  banner  of  Evolution. 

To  accomplish  these  grand  results  all  organic 
beings  must  die  to  make  way  for  new  and 
better  forms  and  functions.  The  earth  is  too 
small  to  hold  all  the  dead  and  the  living.  To 
compel  animals  to  pursue  the  advantageous, 
and  thus  acquire  new  characteristics,  they  must 
be  made  to  feel  the  pains  attendant  on  diso- 
bedience of  the  laws  of  life.  But  mingled 
with  these  t\vo  direful  calamities,  disease  and 
death,  there  is  yet  so  much  pleasure  in  living, 
such  compensation  for  the  unhappiness  of  life, 
that  all  animals,  notwithstanding  pain,  hunger, 
and  distress  of  feelings,  universally  and  instinc- 
tively flee  from  death.  So,  balancing  the  great 
blessings  and  ills  of  life,  both  necessary  for  its 

[74] 


special  Creations  or  Evolution 

evolution,  the  judgment  instinctively  declares 
life  is  sweet;  and  while  much  suffering  exists, 
there  is  yet  more  pleasure ;  and  if  assured  of 
a  blissful  immortality  every  soul  is  ready  and 
eager  to  thank  God  that  its  body  was  born. 

Evolution  is,  therefore,  full  of  mercy  and 
of  promise.  Its  entire  aim  and  the  reason  for 
existence  of  pain  and  death  are  the  betterment 
of  the  living  organism.  Every  creature  which 
has  existed  from  the  dawn  of  life  has  been 
endeavoring  consciously  and  subconsciously  to 
adapt  itself  to  its  surroundings,  —  to  live  and  to 
grow  so  as  to  avoid  pain,  to  postpone  death, 
and  to  seek  contentment.  The  efforts  to  ac- 
complish these  results  have  produced  changes 
in  functions  and  structures.  These  have  been 
transmitted  to  progeny,  and  in  turn  improved 
on  by  them,  until  age  by  age,  all  living  forms 
have  better  accommodated  themselves  to  their 
environments,  but  with  some  retrogressions,  and 
by  so  doing  have  more  and  more  avoided  the 
ills  of  the  flesh,  have  increased  their  longev- 
ity, and  have  enjoyed  intenser  pleasures  of 
existence. 

This  is  Evolution.  This  is  the  merciful  law 
whereby  all  life  is  growing,  although  slowly, 
yet  surely,  more  exempt  from  distress  and 
more  capable  of  appreciating  the  blessings  of 
this  earth. 

4.  To  the  Christian  mind  the  rocks  and 
[75] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

strata  of  the  earth's  crust,  and  the  milHons  of 
fossils  of  pre-existing  ages  contained  therein, 
are  leaves  of  the  book  of  nature,  whereon  are 
written  by  its  Divine  Creator  the  past  history 
of  the  earth.  This  record  is  as  authentic  and 
credible  as  any  other  knowledge.  The  only 
question  being,  as  in  all  other  writings,  its  true 
meaning.  The  special  question  for  our  con- 
sideration is.  Does  it  show  in  so  clear  a  manner 
an  evolutionary  development  of  living  organ- 
isms as  to  render  improbable  the  theory  of 
Special  Creations? 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  much  has  been  un- 
earthed pointing  to  Evolution  as  the  great 
means  employed  to  differentiate  living  forms, 
and  much  yet  remains  to  be  found  to  prove 
in  any  particular  case  that  Evolution  not  only 
was  the  cause  of  this  differentiation,  but  no 
other  cause  contributed  to  it.  What  are  called 
"  missing  links  "  are  noticed  in  every  genus.  In 
no  one  family  of  organisms  has  the  descent  from 
earlier  forms  been  made  absolutely  conclusive, 
for  an  absolute  conclusion  is  rarely  reached  on  cir- 
cumstantial evidence.  Yet  a  very  near  approach 
to  a  complete  chain  has,  however,  been  found  in 
several  classes,  among  which  may  be  mentioned 
the  links  from  gill-breathing  fish  to  gill-breath- 
ing lizards,  or  lizard-fish ;  from  lizard-fish  to 
lizards  with  both  gills  and  lungs ;  from  these 
latter  to  amphibians,  which  start  with  gills,  then 

[76] 


special  Creations  or  Evolution 

lose  them  and  possess  lungs  alone ;  from  these 
amphibians  to  lizard-birds;  and  finally  from 
lizard-birds  to  ordinary  fowls  entirely  divorced 
from  a  water  habitat. 

When  such  a  succession  of  connected  and 
allied  forms  is  found  to  exist  the  chance  of 
an  independent  origin  is  almost  nil,  while  the 
chances  of  a  relationship  from  a  common  an- 
cestor are  enormously  great. 

5.  The  embryonic  development  of  organisms 
is  to  the  scientific  student  inexplicable  except 
on  the  theory  of  Evolution.  The  presence  in 
the  egg  of  a  bird  during  the  early  stages  of  its 
incubation  of  gill-like  appendages  enforces  a 
conclusion  that  the  far-off  ancestor  of  the  fowl 
possessed  gills  and  breathed  by  means  of 
water  and  must  have  been  a  creature  allied 
to  fishes. 

Von  Baer,  a  distinguished  biologist,  in  study- 
ing embryonic  life  .observed  facts  which  have 
justified  the  following  statements,  quoted  in 
the  language  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer:  **  In  its 
earliest  stage,  every  organism  has  the  greatest 
number  of  characters  in  common  with  all  other 
organisms  in  their  earliest  stages;  that  at  a 
stage  somewhat  later,  its  structure  is  like  the 
structures  displayed  at  corresponding  phases  by 
a  less  extensive  multitude  of  organisms ;  that 
at  each  subsequent  stage  traits  are  acquired 
which  successively  distinguish  the  developing 

[77] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

embryo  from  groups  of  embryos  that  it  previ- 
ously resembled — thus  step  by  step  diminishing 
the  group  of  embryos  which  it  still  resem- 
bles; and  that  thus  the  class  of  similar  forms 
is  finally  narrowed  to  the  species  of  which  it  is 
a  member.  This  abstract  proposition  will  per- 
haps not  be  fully  realized  by  the  general  reader. 
It  will  be  best  to  restate  it  in  a  concrete  shape. 
The  germ  out  of  which  a  human  being  is 
evolved  differs  in  no  visible  respect  from  the 
germ  out  of  which  every  animal  and  plant 
is  evolved.  The  first  conspicuous  structural 
change  undergone  by  this  human  germ  is  one 
characterizing  the  germs  of  animals  only  —  dif- 
ferentiates them  from  the  germs  of  plants.  The 
next  distinction  established  is  a  distinction 
exhibited  by  all  Vertebrata;  but  never  ex- 
hibited by  Annulosa,  Mollusca,  or  Celenterata. 
Instead  of  continuing  to  resemble,  as  it  now 
does,  the  rudiments  of  all  fishes,  reptiles,  birds, 
and  mammals,  this  rudiment  of  a  man  assumes 
a  structure  that  is  seen  only  in  the  rudiments 
of  mammals.  Later,  the  embryo  undergoes 
changes  which  exclude  it  from  the  group  of  im- 
placental  mammals,  and  prove  that  it  belongs 
to  the  group  of  placental  mammals.  Later 
still,  it  grows  unlike  the  embryos  of  those 
placental  mammals  distinguished  as  ungulate 
or  hoofed,  and  continues  to  resemble  only 
the    unguiculated    or    clawed.     By    and    by   it 

[78] 


Special  Creations  or  Evolution 

ceases  to  be  like  any  fetuses  but  those  of  the 
quadrumana;  and  eventually  the  fetuses  of  only 
the  higher  quadrumana  are  simulated.  Lastly, 
at  birth,  the  infant,  belonging  to  whichever  race 
it  may,  is  structurally  very  much  like  the  in- 
fants of  all  other  human  races;  and  only  after- 
wards acquires  those  various  minor  peculiarities 
of  form  that  distinguish  the  variety  of  man  to 
which  it  belongs. 

"  The  generalization  here  expressed  and 
illustrated  must  not  be  confounded  with  an 
erroneous  semblance  of  it  that  has  obtained  con- 
siderable currency.  An  impression  has  been 
given  by  those  who  have  popularized  the  state- 
ments of  embryologists,  that  during  its  develop- 
ment each  higher  organism  passes  through 
stages  in  which  it  resembles  the  adult  forms  of 
lower  organisms  —  that  the  embryo  of  a  man  is 
at  one  time  like  a  fish  and  at  another  time  like 
a  reptile.  This  is  not  the  fact.  The  fact  estab- 
lished is  that  up  to  a  certain  point  the  embryos 
of  a  man  and  a  fish  continue  similar,  and  that 
then  differences  begin  to  appearand  increase  — 
the  one  embryo  approaching  more  and  more 
towards  the  form  of  a  fish,  the  other  diverging 
from  it  more  and  more. 

"  The  reader  must  also  be  cautioned  against 
accepting  this  generalization  as  exact.  The 
likenesses  thus  successively  displayed  are  not 
precise,  but  approximate.     Only  leading  char- 

[79] 


Agreement  of  Evolutioa  and  Christianity 

acteristics  are  the  same;  not  all  the  details. 
Making  all  requisite  qualifications,  however, 
these  resemblances  remain  conspicuous ;  and 
the  fact  that  they  follow  each  other  in  the  way 
described  is  a  fact  of  great  significance." 

6.  Without  pursuing  the  physical  argument 
further  to  establish  the  probability  of  Evolution 
having  been  the  means  employed  by  God  to 
develop  His  Creation,  this  chapter  may  be 
briefly  summarized  by  saying,  it  is  believed 
that  no  warrant  is  to  be  found  in  the  Inspired 
Word  of  God  for  requiring  mankind  to  accept 
the  theory  of  Special  Creations ;  that  its  lan- 
guage is  to  a  marked  extent  antagonistic  to 
the  idea  that  anything  like  solar  days  divided 
the  great  epochs  of  creation ;  that  immense 
periods  of  time  or  eras,  having  been  shown  to 
be  the  probable  meaning  of  the  phrases,  "first," 
*'  second,"  etc.,  days,  the  order  of  creation  as 
narrated  by  Moses,  was  a  succession  of  physical 
developments,  in  each  instance  proceeding  from 
the  simple  to  the  complex  —  the  long  epochs 
and  the  order  of  events  both  being  in  exact 
accord  with  the  requirements  of  Evolution  ;  that 
Special  Creations  in  a  human  point  of  view  do 
not  indicate  the  Omnipotence  and  Omniscience 
which  creation  by  Evolution  implies ;  that  de- 
velopment by  Evolution  is  full  of  hope  that 
pain,  misery,  and  sin  will  eventually  be  abol- 
ished, whereas  there  is  nothing  but  gloom  for 
[80] 


special  Creations  or  Evolution 

man  and  beast  if  God  has  finished  His  Creation; 
and  finally  that  Special  Creations  are  refuted 
in  every  revolving  planet,  by  every  stratum  of 
the  earth's  crust,  and  in  every  fossil  allied  with 
other  forms,  dead  and  living,  and  by  the 
changes  now  going  on  among  living  organisms. 
In  a  word,  there  is  no  warrant  in  God's  Holy 
Word  that  a  profound  agreement  should  not 
exist  between  physical  Evolution  and  orthodox 
Christianity. 


[8i] 


EVOLUTION   AND  MAN 

ALMOST  all  the  advocates  of  Evolution  are 
agreed  man  has  been  as  much  the  pro- 
duct of  evolution  as  any  other  animal.  The 
proposition  that  the  human  race  has  sprung 
from  lower  orders  of  life  has  been  and  still  is 
shocking  to  many  individuals  and  accordingly 
is  indignantly  rejected  by  them.  A  leading  and 
valuable  characteristic  of  mankind  is  personal 
vanity  if  controlled  by  facts,  but  vicious  if 
based  solely  on  self-esteem.  Before  the  inven- 
tion of  the  telescope  man  supposed  the  stars 
revolved  around  his  abode  for  his  delectation ; 
the  sun  was  created  for  the  express  purpose 
of  lighting  this  little  globe ;  the  earth  was  made 
for  himself;  and  even  within  the  past  year,  a 
distinguished  scientist  has  asserted  our  sun  is 
the  centre  of  all  of  God's  universes.  With  such 
vainglorious  conceptions  of  his  importance,  it 
is  difficult  for  such  a  creature  to  pass  judg- 
ment on  his  own  origin  and  merits,  and  to  ar- 
rive at  the  conclusion  that  he,  in  many  respects, 
is  an  animal  pure  and  simple,  with  an  ancestry 
leading  back  through  the  lowest  forms  of  life. 
But  with  this  hypothesis  of  the  descent  of 
man  the  Christian  Evolutionist  should  have  no 

[82] 


Evolution  and  Man 

quarrel.  There  is  nothing  in  the  revealed  Word 
antagonistic  to  this  humble  origin  of  physical 
and  mental  man,  but  on  the  contrary  it  is  rather 
strongly  confirmatory  of  its  truth.  In  the  second 
chapter  of  Genesis,  verse  nineteen,  it  is  written, 
'*  And  out  of  the  ground  the  Lord  God  formed 
every  beast  of  the  field  and  every  fowl  of  the 
air."  The  "  ground "  is  thereby  declared  ex- 
pressly to  be  the  material  from  which  the  beast 
was  formed.  Again,  in  the  second  chapter  of 
Genesis,  verse  seven,  it  is  written,  "And  the 
Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground," 
etc.  The  "  dust  of  the  ground,"  which  in  sub- 
stance is  "the  ground,"  is  thereby  declared 
expressly  to  be  the  material  from  which  man 
was  formed.^ 

So  that  as  far  as  the  Inspired  narrative  dis- 
closes the  physical  origin  of  beast  and  of  man, 
they  were  both  made  of  the  same  material,  and 
Evolution  and  Christianity  on  this  point  should 
not  be  at  war. 

1  Th©  phrase  "dust  of  the  ground"  may  have  been  in- 
tended to  indicate  that  as  **  dust  "  was  the  uppermost,  or  last 
stratum  of  the  earth,  so  man  was  the  last  of  the  great  fami- 
lies of  animals  to  be  formed  therefrom. 


[83] 


EVOLUTION   AND   MENTALITY 

EVOLUTIONISTS,  such  as  Darwin  and 
Spencer,  assert  substantially  that  all  life, 
including  man's,  probably  sprang  from  a  blurred, 
undetermined  feeling  in  some  protoplasmic  cell 
which  answered  to  a  single  nervous  pulsation 
or  shock.  From  this  shock  it  is  supposed  a 
consciousness  was  developed ;  and  next,  sensa- 
tions, by  a  number  of  rapid  successions  of  such 
shocks  or  feelings;  these  sensations  growing 
more  vivid  and  complex  with  the  physical  ad- 
vance of  the  animal,  until  the  dawn  of  mental 
life. 

Let  it  be  noticed,  this  theory  does  not  ac- 
count for  the  creation  of  the  first  nervous 
shock,  but  given  that,  however  feeble,  simple, 
and  undetermined,  evolution  is  competent  to 
build  on  it,  to  render  it  more  complex,  and 
finally  to  develop  mentality  of  the  highest 
order. 

With  this  hypothesis  it  is  submitted  the  Chris- 
tian should  also  have  no  quarrel.  Indeed,  if 
the  scientist  should  be  able  to  develop  pri- 
mordial cells,  from  inorganic  matter,  and  by 
electricity  or  otherwise  to  start  a  pulsation  or 

[84] 


Evolution  and  Mentality 

nervous  shock  therein,  and  then  by  food,  adapta- 
tion to  environment,  etc.,  cause  such  ^pulsations 
to  become  so  frequent  as  to  produce  sensations 
and  distinct  feelings,  and  thus  actually  to  origi- 
nate life,  the  Christian  need  have  no  concern, 
for  fear  it  would  rob  his  God  of  the  credit  of 
creation,  for  any  capacity  of  inorganic  matter  to 
evolve  into  organic  Hfe  would  be  inherent  in 
such  matter,  and  was  put  therein  when  ''the 
Spirit  of  God  moved  over  the  face  of  the  waters." 
The  case  would  be  different  only  in  quality  of 
effect  and  not  in  causation  from  the  chemical 
union,  —  for  example,  of  chlorine  and  sodium. 
The  former  is  a  dense  yellow,  suffocating,  poi- 
sonous gas,  and  the  latter,  a  soft,  silver-like  metal 
which  takes  fire  in  contact  with  water.  To- 
gether they  form  common  table  salt,  a  valuable 
substance  having  new  and  distinct  properties 
from  each  of  its  constituents.  Man  may  bring 
matter  in  juxtaposition,  but  he  cannot  add  to 
it,  or  withdraw  anything  from  it.  Whatever 
changes  take  place  are  all  inherent  in  the  sub- 
stances awaiting  solely  for  appropriate  oppor- 
tunities. 

We  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter  that 
the  material  out  of  which  God  formed  beasts, 
etc.,  was  the  ''  ground."  So  far  as  the  divine 
account  indicates,  the  entire  animal,  physical 
and  mental,  sprang  from  a  material  substance 
— ''  the  ground,"  which  is  doubtless  a  figurative 

[85] 


Agreement  of  Evolution^  and  Christianity- 
expression  for  ** matter"  with  its  several  quali- 
ties. No  special  creation  of  the  mind  is  stated, 
but  only  that  **  beasts  "  were  formed  from  the 
"  ground  " ;  and  if  it  can  be  shown  animals  pos- 
sess, in  addition  to  a  physical  organism,  the 
mental  faculties  of  reasoning  and  the  emotional 
qualities  and  memory,  then  the  power  to  reason, 
and  to  love,  to  hate,  to  remember,  etc.,  has  the 
warrant  of  Holy  Scripture  that  they  may  have 
been  formed  from  the  ground,  or  in  other  words, 
they  may  be  the  result  of  the  physical  proper- 
ties of  matter.  It  is  repeated,  there  should 
be  no  reluctance  in  investigating  the  legiti- 
mate phenomena  of  nature,  and  all  the  old-time 
fear  of  endowing  animals  with  logical  powers 
and  the  desire  of  reducing  their  mental  ac- 
tions to  mere  instincts  should  be  laid  aside  in 
a  fearless  and  truthful  consideration  of  the 
subject. 

A  blind  dog  has  been  known  to  recognize  his 
master  by  the  scent  given  off.  This  recognition 
involves  as  much  logical  and  mnemonic  pro- 
cesses as  the  proposition  that  a  law  of  a  State 
of  the  United  States  relieving  its  citizens  from 
paying  their  debts  to  citizens  of  other  States  is 
a  violation  of  the  Federal  Constitution  and  void. 
Each  may  be  expanded  into  the  syllogism 
whereby  the  mental  process  will  be  more  clearly 
seen.  The  blind  dog  goes  through  this  train  of 
reasoning. 

[86] 


Evolution  and  Mentality- 
Major  premise:   My   master,  I  remember,    has 

a  certain  kind  of  odor ; 
Minor  premise :    This    odor    I    now    smell   on 

putting   my  nose  to  a  person 

is  of  that  character. 
Conclusion:  Therefore  the    person    I  now 

smell  is  my  master. 

The  jurist  adopts  the  same  logic. 

Major  premise :  The  Federal  Constitution  de- 
clares to  be  void  laws  of  a 
State  impairing  the  obligations 
of  contracts. 

Minor  premise:  This  law  by  relieving  its  citi- 
zens from  paying  their  debts  to 
citizens  of  other  States  is  of 
that  character. 

Conclusion:  Therefore  this  law  is  a  viola- 

tion of  the  Federal  Constitution 
and  void. 

A  number  of  instances  of  both  inductive  and 
deductive  reasoning  in  animals  might  be  cited 
and  expanded  into  syllogisms,  showing  that 
their  processes  of  thought  are  exactly  similar 
to  those  of  man's. 

No  extended  argument  is  needed  to  prove 
animals  possess,  more  or  less  strongly,  all  the 
emotional  faculties,  as  fear,  hatred,  revenge, 
maternal  love,   love    of  associates,    generosity, 

[87]  , 


Agreement  of  Evolutiorb  and  Christianity 

and  in  some  instances  denial  of  self,  or  altru- 
ism. They  are  also  endowed  with  Memory 
and  Free-VVill  to  give  effect  to  these  faculties. 
The  writer,  with  the  most  casual  observation, 
has  seen  the  following  instances  of  emotional 
characteristics  in  animals:  A  male  fowl  of  the 
barnyard  species  hunt  for  and  find  a  worm, 
and  then  by  a  peculiar  cluck  call  a  hen ;  she 
recognizing  the  invitation  came  quickly  and  ate 
the  worm.  A  mare  in  a  field  with  her  colt 
deliberately  and  continually  place  herself  be- 
tween the  colt  and  a  bad-tempered  horse,  and 
receive  on  her  jaw  a  kick  from  the  latter  in 
protecting  her  young.  A  dog,  which  had  been 
fired  at  with  a  pistol  from  a  window  to  pre- 
vent his  prowling  about  a  country-house  at 
night,  run  away  as  soon  as  he  heard  the  win- 
dow open.  An  otherwise  peaceable  bull  en- 
deavor to  attack  persons  who  were  seeking  to 
administer  medicine  to  a  cow  with  colic,  the 
cow  being  of  his  herd.  A  cow  share  her  bran 
with  her  calf.  A  dog  which  had  been  struck  at 
with  a  whip  by  an  ill-tempered  man  riding  in  a 
vehicle,  actually  lie  in  wait  again  and  again  for 
the  same  man  to  pass  and  then  revengefully  and 
with  hatred  attack  him.  Another  dog  and  a 
small  boy  have  been  shown  to  the  writer  by  the 
mother,  who  declared  her  child  had  been  rescued 
from  drowning  in  an  adjacent  canal  by  the 
animal. 

[88] 


Evolution  and  Mentality 


The  above  acts  embraced  love,  courage, 
fear,  social  obligation,  maternal  care,  hatred, 
revenge,  kindness,  and  memory,  and  were 
all  similar  in  character  and  sprang  from  the 
same  mental  processes  as  those  performed  by 
mankind. 

Evolutionists  generally  beheve  these  logical 
and  emotional  faculties  have  developed  by  ex- 
perience, and  been  transmitted  by  heredity  to 
each  animal  in  its  upward  progress.  The  writer, 
who  trusts  he  is  a  Christian  in  the  most  ortho- 
dox sense,  is  of  opinion  that  the  conclusion  of 
the  evolutionist  is  probably  correct,  and  Chris- 
tians need  have  no  fear  in  accepting  the  propo- 
sition as  fully  as  the  most  extreme  evolutionist 
has  promulgated  it.  Indeed  if  it  be  true,  then 
to  reject  it  will  be  injurious  to  Christianity;  for 
setting  up  unsound  or  untenable  propositions 
as  the  basis  of  any  doctrine  or  philosophy 
must  eventually,  when  the  truth  becomes  known, 
injure  it,  until  the  doctrine  is  recast  and  it  is 
shown  that  such  unsound  propositions  were  not 
essential. 

Now  if  the  logical  process,  memory  and  the 
emotional  faculties,  including  Will  Power  similar 
in  character  to  man's,  can  in  beasts  be  evolved 
from  "  the  ground,"  or  inorganic  matter,  and 
mankind  has  the  same  physical  origin, — *' the 
dust  of  the  ground,"  —  it  follows  that  man's 
mentality  may  Hkewise  be  the  product  of  the 

[89] 


Agreement  of  Evolutioa^  and  Christianity 

same  processes  which  have  evolved  mentaHty 
among  beasts.^ 

Nothing  in  nature  is  more  susceptible  of 
growth  and  cultivation  than  the  intellect.  No 
greater  mental  difference  probably  exists  be- 
tween an  ape  and  a  Fiji  Islander  than  distin- 
guished the  latter  and  Milton,  Shakespeare,  or 
Newton.  A  matter  of  the  most  universal  ob- 
servation is  the  vast  change  produced  in  every 
child  by  education.  The  entire  nature  of  man 
is  practically  altered  by  intellectual  pursuits  and 
by  association  with  his  fellow-man.  There  is  a 
limit,  it  is  true,  to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge, 
and  the  ability  of  abstraction  and  generalization 
of  such  knowledge  in  each  person  depending  on 
the  natural  capacity  of  the  individual ;  but  this 
natural  capacity  to  acquire  facts  and  their  bene- 
ficial use  are  susceptible  of  vast  enlargement  in 
every  case  of  a  normally  constituted  mind. 

Mental  quaHties,  it  is  well  known,  are  also 
frequently  transmitted  to  progeny.  Breeders 
of  animals  claim  they  can  render  permanent 
certain  characteristics,  mental  as  well  as  physi- 
cal, by  artificial  selection  in  a  few  generations. 
If  this  be  true,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  same 
effects  may  not  be  produced  in  the  human  race. 
This  whole  subject  of  the  application  of  breed- 
ing as  to  mankind  has  been  very  much  neglected. 

^  "  For  he  knoweth'  whereof  we  are  made  ;  he  remem- 
bereth  that  we  are  but  dust,"  Psalm  of  David,  ciii.  14. 

[90] 


Evolution  and  Mentality 

In  the  freedom,  or  rather  license  of  his  will,  and 
in  the  indulgence  of  caprices  and  emotions,  man 
has  practically  ignored  calm  judgment  in  the 
selection  of  mates.  No  rule  having  for  its  ob- 
ject improved  offspring  has  been  adopted,  and 
the  most  hap-hazard  alliances  have  been  effected. 
Occasionally  and  by  chance  a  desirable  combi- 
nation of  male  and  female  is  made,  and  children 
of  superior  mental  calibre  are  born ;  and  these 
in  too  large  a  number  of  instances  are  placed 
among  so  unfavorable  circumstances  as  not  to 
allow  of  adequate  development.  It  is  beheved, 
however,  by  many  that  in  future  centuries  when 
the  vast  effects  for  good  in  Evolution  are  realized, 
much  more  attention  will  be  given  to  matri- 
monial alliances,  and  thereby  children  be  pro- 
duced with  highly  specialized  and  desirable 
mental  and  emotional  characteristics. 

But  this  creation  at  will  of  men  and  women 
with  great  artistic  capacity,  or  mathematical 
acumen,  or  oratorical  expression,  etc.,  will  come 
only  as  the  traits  have  been  produced,  by  effort. 
Take  a  youth  of  ordinary  mind,  train  him  to 
numbers,  and  have  him  devote  his  whole  Hfe 
to  mathematical  science  ;  let  him  marry  a  woman 
springing  from  parents  devoted  to  the  same 
pursuit;  select  the  offspring  showing  the  most 
adaptation  to  mathematical  analysis,  with  also 
an  otherwise  all-rounded  physical  and  mental 
development,  and  have  them  make  every  effort 

[91] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

to  master  the  science,  and  adhere  to  the  pro- 
cess for  a  few  generations,  and  a  mathematician 
would  probably  be  produced  excelling  any  the 
world  has  yet  known.  Indeed,  for  Christian 
sentiment  to  oppose  the  true  and  just  claims 
of  Evolution  is,  in  view  of  the  above  remarks, 
a  great  injury  to  civilization,  for  Christian  senti- 
ment rules,  and  properly  so,  the  world  to-day. 
The  result  of  a  correct  appreciation  of  what 
Evolution  might  accomplish  for  the  human  race 
no  man  can  estimate.  Under  Christian  patron- 
age, laws  would  soon  be  enacted,  and  advice 
given,  providing  for  the  selection  of  proper 
mates  in  marriage,  and  they  might  possibly 
in  a  few  generations  produce  the  most  wonder- 
fully beneficial  results,  and  be  generally  accep- 
table. 

The  lesson  to  be  learned  from  this  discussion 
is  that  evolution  applies  to  the  mental  faculties 
as  well  as  to  physical  function  and  structure, 
and  that  all  mental  evolution  is  the  result  of 
effort.  Persistent  effort,  aided  by  an  ever-differ- 
entiating organism  under  the  most  favorable 
natural  environment,  may  have  been  the  physi- 
cal cause  why  man  has  finally  attained  his 
present  exalted  mental  status  —  the  physical 
cause,  it  is  repeated,  because  it  is  beHeved  by 
the  Christian  evolutionist  God  uses  the  laws 
of  nature  and  the  qualities  of  matter  to  develop 
His  Creation. 

[92] 


Evolution  and  Mentality 

If  the  physical  and  mental  man  had  a  com- 
mon origin  with  other  animals,  for  some  reason 
known  to  Himself,  God  doubtless  allowed  some 
distant  animal  to  be  the  root  from  which  should 
spring  His  yet  highest  earthly  creation.  Placed 
under  the  most  favorable  environment  this  early 
creature  far  outstripped  all  others  in  the  struggle 
of  life.  As  he  grew  in  body  and  adaptation 
to  his  surroundings  his  mentaHty  expanded  and 
ability  of  expression  increased,  until  at  this  day 
his  power  of  abstraction  is  so  metaphysical, 
he  formulates  conceptions  of  time  and  space ; 
his  generalizations  are  almost  as  broad  as  the 
cosmos ;  his  mathematical  statements  of  the 
laws  of  nature  so  accurate  and  profound  and 
God-like,  that  Evolution  is  once  more  in  accord 
with  Genesis  wherein  it  is  stated,  "And  God 
said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our 
likeness :  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the 
fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and 
over  the  cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over 
every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the 
earth.  So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image, 
in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him ;  male  and 
female  created  he  them." 

The  conclusion  arrived  at  in  this  chapter  is 
not  that  the  mind  necessarily  is  the  product 
of  highly  organized  matter,  for  this  treatise 
is  not  an  argument  to  demonstrate  the  origin 
of  mind,  but  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  Inspired 
[93] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

Narrative  of  Creation  which  compels  the  Chris- 
tian who  implicitly  accepts  it  as  the  divine  word 
of  God,  and  therefore  truthful,  to  believe  that 
mentality  could  not  have  been  developed  from 
the  "  dust  of  the  ground."  Scripture,  it  is  sub- 
mitted, is  thus  found  to  offer  no  objection  to 
one  of  the  extreme  deductions  of  Evolution. 


[94] 


EVOLUTION  AND   THE   SOUL 

IN  his  later  writings  Mr.  Darwin,  and  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  as  well,  have  attempted  to 
show  that  the  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being,  and 
what  is  usually  denominated  moral  conduct  ap- 
plicable to  the  social  intercourse  of  men,  had 
their  origin  in  the  experiences  of  mankind. 

It  is  agreed  the  human  intellect  has  always  in- 
stinctively recognized  that  its  body  and  mind 
were  weak  and  frail  existences.  Death  has  con- 
stantly reminded  men  of  their  uncertain  tenure  of 
life.  Disease  has  taught  them  of  the  infirmities 
of  the  flesh.  The  powers  of  nature,  such  as  grav- 
itation, electricity,  tornadoes,  floods,  and  fire,  of 
their  incapacity  to  oppose  them  successfully. 
The  constant  exhibition  of  these  forces  has  im- 
pressed upon  mankind  the  ever-present  conclu- 
sion of  the  reality  of  some  power  greater  than 
its  own.  Besides,  it  has  seen  on  every  hand  the 
most  abundant  evidences  of  creation,  and  yet 
without  the  ability  on  its  own  part  to  bring  into 
existence  one  atom  of  matter.  These  things 
have  operated  to  make  men  look  upwards  to 
some  First  Cause  and  Supreme  Ruler  of  the 
cosmos. 

[95] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

The  Christian  evolutionist  has  no  fault  to  find 
with  this  recognition  of  God  in  nature.  He 
believes  all  physical  phenomena  to  be  the  work 
of  His  hand ;  why  should  he  not  have  faith  in 
the  evidences  of  his  senses,  and  ascribe  them  to 
His  Omniscience  and  Omnipotence?  The  as- 
sumptions of  materialists  that  they  have  dem- 
onstrated the  conceptions  of  the  Godhead  are 
derived  conjointly  from  fear,  a  sense  of  depen- 
dence, and  a  feeling  of  wonder,  and  therefore 
that  such  conceptions  are  the  result  of  evolution, 
are  in  the  views  presented  herein  entirely  unim- 
portant. Many  of  the  highly  developed  animals 
certainly  exhibit  two  of  these  emotions,  namely, 
fear  and  a  sense  of  dependence.  Numerous  in- 
stances might  be  mentioned  of  each  class  of 
these  phenomena.  Inasmuch  as  admiration  or 
wonder  is  so  purely  a  subjective  emotion  not 
translatable  into  exclusive  action  we  cannot  tell 
if  animals  possess  it  or  not.  But  with  the  two 
emotions  of  fear  and  dependence  most  promi- 
nently developed  in  the  nature  of  dumb  animals, 
there  is  yet  no  visible  apprehension  of  the  Deity. 
There  is  no  act  beasts  perform  which  indicates 
they  have  the  faintest  conception  of  a  Supreme 
Creator,  or  of  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul.^ 
And  yet  they  perform  unconsciously  the  syl- 
logistic process  of  reasoning;  they  analyze, 
they  generalize,  they  remember,  they  possess 
1  Man  alone  is  moral.  —  Darwin's  "  Descent  of  Man.*' 

[96] 


Evolution  and  the  Soul 

almost  every  good  and  evil  emotion  of  the 
human  heart,  and  their  acts  are  the  result  of 
Free  Will.  Possibly,  and  for  sufficient  reasons, 
under  the  order  of  Divine  Providence  they  have 
not  been  endowed  with  sufficient  ability  to  ap- 
prehend Him. 

Whether  the  birth  of  the  soul  is  due  to  a 
more  highly  developed  quality  of  mentaHty,  as 
in  man,  than  the  brute  possesses ;  or  to  man's 
greater  sense  of  fear  and  dependence  and  won- 
der; or  to  the  direct  gift  of  God,  one  thing  is  as 
certain  as  the  nature  of  the  proposition  allows  to 
be  demonstrated  that  this  conception  of  Deity 
exists  only  in  man,  and  distinguishes  him  most 
significantly  from  beasts,  and  places  him  in  a 
class  from  all  other  created  things. 

As  we  have  seen,  "  to  create  "  does  not  imply 
any  particular  method  of  creation  —  evolution- 
ary or  special.  But  the  similarity  of  man's  body 
and  the  processes  of  his  reasoning  to  those  of 
lower  animals  are  highly  persuasive  that  their 
physical  origins  were  similar  and  the  product  of 
evolution.  Why  may  not  the  birth  and  growth 
of  the  soul  in  man  have  been,  under  the  guidance 
of  God,  the  result  of  mental  development,  the 
same  as  the  mind  may  have  been  the  product 
of  organized  matter?  Almighty  God  may  have 
intended  all  these  things  to  follow  when  "  His 
Spirit  moved  over  the  face  of  the  deep  " ;  all 
of  these,  and  yet  higher  developments,  may  have 
7  [97] 


Agreement  of  Evolution,  and  Christianity- 
been  potentially  impressed  on  matter  to  be  un- 
folded and  evolved  in  the  due  order  He  has 
foreordained.  There  is  no  word  in  the  Mosaic 
narrative  against  this  evolution  of  mind  from 
matter.  What  it  does  affirm,  and  that  only  that 
God  made  man,  and  man  alone,  a  **  living  soul." 
No  materialist  has  shown  the  faculty  to  recog- 
nize God  is  possessed  by  any  other  animal  ex- 
cept man,  and  until  he  does  the  Christian  may 
rest  absolutely  content  that  there  is  no  fallacy 
in  the  Mosaic  account,  and  no  disagreement 
provable  by  the  Inspired  Narrative  between 
Evolution  and  Christianity. 

It  is  this  very  capacity  in  man  to  recognize 
God,  and  the  sense  of  duty  to  obey  His  com- 
mandments, which  constitutes  the  soul  as  dis- 
tinguished from  mind.  It  is  by  this  important 
attribute  the  human  race  is  separated  from  all 
other  animals.  It  differentiates  it  from  the 
brutes  and  makes  it  responsible,  according  to 
the  intelligence  given  it,  for  the  adoration  and 
glorification  of  the  God  which  its  soul  capaci- 
ties teach  must  exist. 

In  regard  to  moral  behavior  in  the  social 
relations  of  men,  Darwin  and  others  claim  it  was 
demonstrated  to  even  the  earliest  peoples  that 
the  truthful  narration  of  facts,  fidelity  to  prom- 
ises and  to  social  obligations,  kindness  to  all, 
etc.,  were  more  conducive  to  longevity,  to  the 
well-being  and  happiness  of  the  individual,  or 

[98] 


Evolution  and  the  Soul 

to  the  society  practising  them  than  falsehood, 
trickery,  theft,  cruelty,  etc.  The  value  of  these 
virtues  and  the  ill  effects  of  their  opposites 
being  observed  by  all,  in  many  cases  the  good 
and  the  true  were  handed  down  from  generation 
to  generation  by  precept,  by  example,  and  by 
heredity  —  their  worth  and  their  necessity  ever 
growing  in  importance  as  the  civilization  of  the 
human  race  advanced.  The  history  of  mankind 
affirms  rather  than  denies  the  above  propositions 
to  be  correct. 

The  Christian  need  have  no  dispute  with  this 
deduction  from  observed  facts.  Wise  men  teach 
their  children  the  cardinal  virtues  as  rules  for 
successful  careers.  Men  who  have  practised 
these  principles  will  in  some  instances  trans- 
mit a  tendency  towards  them  to  their  off- 
spring. If  a  predisposition  to  vice  may  be 
inherited  —  as  criminologists  assert  —  why  not 
to  virtue? 

But  the  observance  of  virtue  because  it  is 
profitable  does  not  constitute  a  moral  act.  It 
may  be  a  purely  intellectual  deduction ;  but  to 
practise  virtue  because  it  is  believed  to  be  the 
command  of  God  and  pleasing  to  Him  is  an 
entirely  different  conception,  not  springing  out 
of  any  utilitarian  origin,  and  bearing  no  anal- 
ogy to  the  seeking  of  gain  from  accommo- 
dation to  environment.  A  man  may  refrain 
from  theft  because  he  fears  the  criminal  laws 
[  99  1 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

may  punish  him,  or  he  may  lose  thereby  the 
respect  of  his  fellow-citizens.  This  is  not  moral- 
ity. It  is  a  purely  intellectual  conclusion.  He 
prefers  Hberty  and  the  good  opinion  of  his 
neighbors  to  the  thing  coveted.  But  when  the 
same  man  abstains  from  stealing  because  his 
God  has  enlightened  him  with  the  intelligence 
that  it  is  against  His  will,  and  he  has  a  desire 
to  conform  to  that  Will,  this  is  morality.  This 
is  a  conception  of  the  soul,  and  it  is  the  posses- 
sion of  a  soul  that  enables  him  to  form  the  con- 
ception. The  fact  that  abstaining  from  theft, 
because  recognized  by  the  intellectual  faculties 
to  be  advantageous  to  the  person,  is  not  in  con- 
flict with  the  teachings  of  the  moral  sense,  is  no 
proof  that  the  latter  is  the  development  of  the 
former.  Their  agreement  being  conducive  to 
the  welfare  of  the  individual  is  the  result  of  the 
harmonious  workings  of  creation  in  every  part 
of  its  domain.  To  do  right  is  always  best  in 
every  view  of  every  case. 

Nor  can  it  be  affirmed  that  the  moral  sense  is 
the  legitimate  product  of  such  experience ;  for 
animals  in  many  cases  regard  the  rights  of 
others  when  it  is  apparent  to  them  a  violation 
of  such  rights  will  bring  punishment  as  a  con- 
sequence. For  example,  cats,  notwithstanding 
a  powerful  impulse  to  kill  caged  birds,  will 
refrain  from  fear  of  punishment.  Hunting  dogs 
with  a  natural   instinct   to  jump  at  game  will 

[  100  ] 


Evolution  and  th6  Scul* '  '  >> '^'s  ^ ''. 

pause  immovably  before  it,  when  they  know 
chastisement  will  follow  their  transgression, 
etc.,  and  this  characteristic  has  been  made 
hereditary  to  a  considerable  extent  in  pointers 
and  setters. 

There  is  consequently  a  well-defined  distinc- 
tion between  the  intellect  and  the  moral  sense. 

It  is  probably  true  and  for  the  purpose  of  this 
discussion  it  is  assumed  that  when  the  intellect 
had  attained  the  capacities  of  abstraction  and 
generalization  possessed  by  man,  when  it  could 
conceive  of  time  and  space,  when  it  could  recog- 
nize and  formulate  the  conception  that  nature 
had  not  made  itself,  then  the  individual  became 
advanced  adequately  to  be  endowed  with  the 
moral  sense  as  distinguished  from  an  intellect- 
ual conception.  Then  it  perceived  more  or  less 
dimly  or  clearly  that  a  great  power  had  created 
this  wonderful  cosmos ;  that  truth  and  justice 
were  its  attributes  ;  that  this  power  was  its  God, 
who  demanded  instinctively  adoration  for  His 
creation  and  obedience  for  His  wisdom. 

Then  was  born  the  Soul. 

This  should  be  the  doctrine  of  Christian  Evo- 
lution. This  also  is  the  revelation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, for  no  other  interpretation  of  the  Mosaic 
narrative  can  be  given,  when  taken  as  a  whole, 
when  interpreted  as  a  judicial  tribunal  would 
construe  it,  so  as  to  make  an  harmonious  agree- 
ment of  observed  and  clearly  revealed  facts. 

[  lOI  ] 


^  ''Agreement  of  Evdlutlori  and  Christianity 

God  made  animals  and  men  from  "the 
ground."  They  are  both  similar  in  physical 
structure  and  physiological  function  —  often 
bone  for  bone,  muscle  for  muscle,  and  nerve 
for  nerve.  They  possess  intellectual  and  emo- 
tional faculties  of  the  same  kind  —  man's,  how- 
ever, being  so  great  as  to  be  in  the  image  and 
after  the  likeness  of  God.  Here  the  resem- 
blance ceases.  Here  scientific  Evolution  pauses 
in  its  deductions.  Beyond  this  materialism  is 
silent ;  but  divine  Scripture  takes  up  the  subject 
and  makes  this  further  revelation  —  Genesis, 
second  chapter,  seventh  verse,  "  And  the  Lord 
God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life;  and 
man  became  a  Living  Soul." 

The  rational  interpretation  of  this  remarkable 
and  important  revelation  with  a  view  to  harmo- 
nizing it:  I.  With  the  sentence  that  the  Lord 
God  formed  man  of  "the  dust  of  the  ground"; 

2.  With  man's  unmistakable  physical  and  mental 
similiarity  to  the  other  animal   creation;    and 

3.  To  give  full  effect  to  the  affirmation,  "  And 
man  became  a  living  soul,"  should  be:  i.  That 
physical  man  was  formed  of  the  inorganic  ele- 
ments of  which  other  animals  were  composed. 
This  is  in  plain  accord  with  the  teachings  of 
organic  chemistry;  2.  That  his  evolution  was  on 
lines  analogous  to  those  of  other  animals.  To 
deny  this   proposition   would   be   to   defy  the 

[  102  ] 


Evolution  and  the  Soul 

resemblance  of  his  physiological  structure  and 
functions  to  the  animal  creation;  3.  That  from 
causes  of  which  we  are  hopelessly  ignorant 
man's  development  ages  ago  probably  became 
more  complex  and  heterogeneous  than  any 
other  creature;  4.  That  having  attained  an  in- 
tellectual and  emotional  capacity  so  great  as  to 
be  able  to  reason  from  metaphysical  premises, 
the  Lord  God  endowed  him  with  the  ability  to 
recognize  Himself  as  His  Creator  and  God ; 
5.  That  this  endowment  is  expressed  in  the 
figurative  style  of  speech  so  commonly  em- 
ployed in  the  Scriptures,  "  And  the  Lord  God 
.  .  .  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of 
life,"  etc. ;  6.  That  the  statement  "  breathed 
into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,"  is  defined 
by  the  qualification  which  immediately  follows, 
"  and  man  became  a  living  soul,"  and  demon- 
strates that  the  "  breath  of  life  "  was  not  the 
physical  existence  and  mental  power  of  which 
he  was  a  participator  in  common  with  all  other 
animals,  but  a  life  —  an  eternal  life — suitable 
as  an  attribute  for  the  "living  soul";  7.  That 
man  alone  of  all  animals  is  possessed  of  a  soul ;  ^ 
that  is,  an  ability  to  apprehend  God ;  a  conclu- 
sion which  agrees  with  the  fact  that  no  other 
animal  exhibits   a  capacity  to  recognize   God, 

1  "  Who  knoweth  the  spirit  of  man  that  goeth  upward,  and 
the  spirit  of  the  beast  that  goeth  downward  to  the  earth." 
Ecclesiastes  ill.  21. 

[  103] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

the  duty  of  obedience  to  His  Commandments, 
or  immortality. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
consideration  of  the  agreements  between  the 
Mosaic  Revelation  and  the  revelations  of  Sci- 
entific Inquiry. 

It  is  believed  that  the  unprejudiced  mind  can- 
not escape  the  impress  of  such  a  wonderful 
accordance  as  has  been  shown  to  exist  between 
Scientific  Evolution  and  the  Divine  Word,  and 
like  the  reciprocal  eflfect  of  all  truth.  Evolution 
proves  the  truth  of  the  Inspired  Narrative,  and 
the  Inspired  Narrative  proves  the  truth  of 
Evolution. 


[104] 


Part   II 


Till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ.  —  Eph.  iv.  13. 


EVOLUTIONARY   CHARACTER   OF 
CHRISTIANITY 

THE  attention  of  the  reader  has  been  here- 
tofore invited  to  the  agreements  existing 
between  the  material  works  of  God  and  His 
revelation  of  their  creation,  contained  in  the 
Mosaic  narrative,  and  as  part  of  the  same  sub- 
ject the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  genesis 
of  mankind.  The  discussion  attempted  briefly 
the  demonstration  of  the  threefold  nature  of 
man,  namely,  a  material  body,  a  mind,  and  a 
soul.  No  argument  was  deemed  necessary  to 
establish  the  existence  of  a  corpus  composed  of 
the  inorganic  elements  of  the  earth,  vivified  by 
the  mysterious  potency  we  call  life.  It  was 
briefly  shown,  it  is  hoped,  there  is  no  disagree- 
ment between  the  conclusions  of  evolutionists 
in  regard  to  the  development  of  mind  in  animals 
including   man,    and    Revelation,    because   the 

[105] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

processes  of  thought,  although  immensely  in- 
ferior in  brutes,  are  identical  in  their  logical 
characteristics  with  man's;  both  are  possessed 
of  free-will;  both  are  moved  by  the  same 
emotions;  both  have  the  faculty  of  memorj^; 
and  both  are  declared  in  the  Word  of  God  to 
have  been  formed  from  "  the  ground."  If  the 
mentality  of  "  beasts  of  the  field,"  which  is 
identical  in  quality  with  man's,  could  origi- 
nate "  from  the  ground  " ;  and  man  was  formed 
from  the  same  substance,  "the  dust  of  the 
ground,"  the  conclusion  is  legitimate  that  the 
human  mind  had  probably  the  same  origin. 

But  at  this  point,  it  was  argued,  all  resem- 
blance ceased  between  beasts  and  man.  The 
beast  possesses  body  and  mind ;  man's  con- 
stituents are  body,  and  mind,  and  soul.  Not 
that  the  brute  may  not  be  taught  by  love  or 
fear  to  regard  the  rights  of  others,  an  apparently 
moral  act,  but  there  is  no  evidence  of  the  brute 
creation  having  any  conception  whatever  of 
God,  and  of  obedience  to  His  commandments 
because  He  has  commanded  them  to  be  obeyed. 
The  ability  to  recognize  this  Godhead  and  His 
moral  laws  it  was  claimed  resides  in  a  distinct 
capacity,  denominated  the  Soul  —  a  gift  to  man 
alone,  and  which  was  conferred  upon  him  when 
the  "Lord  God  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the 
breath  of  life  "  (eternal  life),  "  And  man  be- 
came a  living  soul."  In  a  word,  the  power  to 
[106] 


Evolutionary  Character  of  Christianity 

think  constitutes  the  mind;  the  ability  to  ap- 
prehend God  constitutes  the  soul. 

Man  being  composed  of  a  tripartite  nature 
any  evolution  commensurate  for  his  perfect 
development  must  comprise  the  advancement 
of  each  of  these  essential  components.  To 
accommodate  the  body  to  its  environment  with- 
out a  due  regard  to  the  intellectual  and  moral 
sense,  a  poor  specimen  of  manhood  is  pro- 
duced ;  to  educate  the  mind  and  neglect  either 
the  physique  or  morals  develops  a  being  with- 
out physical  strength  to  enforce  his  thoughts, 
or  without  respect  to  claim  credence  from  his 
fellow-man.  The  perfect  man  is  he  alone  who 
has  a  sound  body,  an  educated  mind,  and  a 
moral  sense.  This  moral  sense  is  not,  however, 
to  be  mistaken  for  its  counterfeit  that  springs 
from  utilitarian  motives,  and  vaccilates  with 
circumstances,  but  that  sure  and  abiding  moral- 
ity, firm  under  all  complications  and  tempta- 
tions, because  its  motive  is  obedience  to  its 
God. 

The  fundamental  principle  underlying  material 
and  intellectual  evolution,  it  was  attempted  to 
be  shown,  is  Effort  on  the  part  of  organisms  to 
accommodate  themselves  to  their  environment. 
These  efforts,  for  example,  to  secure  healthful 
air,  abundant  food,  agreeable  mates,  etc.,  have 
modified  functions  and  structures,  and  their 
transmission  to  offspring  have  produced  new 
[  107  ] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

types  of  plants  and  new  races  of  animals.  The 
efforts  to  acquire  the  above  necessities  in  the 
easiest  and  most  certain  manner  have  also  de- 
veloped mentality  among  animals,  and  as  to  men 
have  in  a  large  measure  contributed  to  an  intel- 
lectual development  marvellous  in  the  extreme. 

If  the  body  had  been  planned  on  the  principle 
that  it  should  have  no  necessities,  or  if  these 
necessities  had  been  supplied  in  such  abun- 
dance that  no  effort  was  needed  to  appropriate 
them,  there  would  have  been  no  physical  evolu- 
tion. If  the  mind  had  been  born  with  full 
knowledge  of  all  things,  with  nothing  to  learn 
from  observation  and  experience,  there  would 
have  been  no  mental  development  The  circum- 
stance that  there  are  necessities  which  may  be 
partially  and  sufficiently  gratified  but  never  fully 
administered  to,  which  gratification  must  un- 
ceasingly and  forever  be  met  by  renewed  efforts, 
it  is  repeated  is  the  keystone  in  the  arch  of 
life  development. 

Now  when  we  turn  our  attention  to  the  third 
component  of  man's  nature,  namely,  the  soul,  if 
we  find  necessities  exist,  as  in  his  material  and 
intellectual  organization,  for  example,  a  hunger 
for  a  knowledge  of  the  Godhead,  a  thirst  for 
righteousness,  a  yearning  to  comprehend  the 
future  state,  etc.,  each  one  of  these  emotions  as 
veritable,  as  overpowering,  and  as  persistent  as 
the  craving  for  food,  or  the  desire  for  water, 
[io8] 


Evolutionary  Character  of  Christianity 

which  spiritual  hunger  and  thirst  may  be  ap- 
peased by  efforts  but  not  fully  gratified,  in  con- 
sequence of  only  partial  and  yet  sufficient 
Revelations  of  Christianity,  which  efforts  enrich 
the  soul  of  man  —  like  the  strivings  to  acquire 
food  and  air  do  the  body  —  with  high  thoughts  of 
God,  and  thereby  evolve  a  more  complex  and 
nobler  spirituality,  it  is  asserted,  if  these  things 
be  so,  the  analogy  is  complete  and  perfect 
between  the  schemes  of  physical  and  mental 
evolution,  and  the  scheme  of  spiritual  evolution 
as  contained  in  the  Christian  Religion. 

The  plan  of  the  following  chapters  will  be  to 
take  up  separately  the  principal  dogmas  agreed 
to  by  all  Christians,  and  attempt  to  show  that 
Christianity  offers  most  wonderfully  —  mirac- 
ulously—  a  religion  adapted  to  evolve  the  soul 
of  man  to  the  highest  perfection  of  earthly  ex- 
istence, and  as  a  consequence  of  this  ability  to 
produce  this  superhuman  result — as  the  laws 
of  nature  by  their  capacity  to  evolve  higher 
and  higher  functional  and  intellectual  character- 
istics in  animals  prove  their  Divine  origin  — 
Christianity  demonstrates  likewise  its  truthful- 
ness and  its  Divine  origin. 


[  109] 


SOUL  EVOLUTION 

THE  spirituality  of  man  like  his  intellect- 
uality is  susceptible  of  extraordinary  im- 
provement. By  education  it  is  rendered  more 
definite  in  its  conceptions;  errors  the  result 
of  ignorance  are  corrected  when  found  to  be 
irreconcilable  to  ascertained  facts;  and  con- 
clusions more  and  more  accurate  and  legitimate 
are  drawn  from  wider  and  deeper  contempla- 
tions of  the  subjects  of  which  it  takes  cogni- 
zance, until  the  idolatrous  worship  of  a  brazen 
calf  is  changed  to  the  glorification  of  a  God  rep- 
resenting the  metaphysical  idealities  of  omni- 
science, omnipotence,  and  omnipresence.  The 
field,  therefore,  for  soul  evolution  is  as  broad, 
as  complex,  as  productive  of  beneficial  results 
as  mind  evolution.  By  his  constitution  man 
may  grow  in  grace  no  less  than  in  knowledge, 
and  when  the  infinite  future  is  considered  and 
an  infinite  number  of  individuals  are  to  be 
affected,  no  lower  limits  can  be  assigned  to  the 
high  eminence  the  human  soul  may  attain  than 
those  defined  by  the  loving  of  God  with  all  the 
heart,  with  all  the  soul,  and  with  all  the  mind, 
and  our  neighbors  as  ourselves.  This  standard, 
[no] 


Soul  Evolution 

in  the  opinion  of  the  writer,  represents  the  very 
highest  elevation  of  human  spirituality,  and  is 
the  goal  towards  which  all  the  moral  forces 
of  humanity  are  now  tending;  a  goal  which 
Almighty  God  has  most  probably,  in  the  per- 
fectness  of  His  works,  planned  to  be  reached 
in  the  far  distant  future  by  man  as  the  result 
of  soul  evolution  —  the  product  of  free-will 
efforts. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true,  advancement  in  intel- 
lectuality contributes  as  a  rule  to  spirituality. 
No  one  will  maintain  that  the  ignorant  snake- 
worshippers  of  Hayti,  or  the  uneducated  cow- 
idolaters  of  India  are  comparable  in  religious 
thought  to  learned  Christians.  This  very  fact 
has  led  many  to  confound  the  existences  of 
mind  and  soul,  and  to  conclude  spirituality  was 
the  offspring  of  mentality — particularly  as  cor- 
rect mental  deductions  lead  men  universally  to 
acknowledge  the  inherent  value  of  virtue,  and 
the  desirability  of  its  being  practised.  But  it 
is  clear,  as  said  heretofore,  the  performance  of 
a  seemingly  virtuous  act  because  it  is  desirable 
for  its  beneficial  results  is  not  moral  conduct 
It  is  purely  and  simply  an  intellectual  process 
in  which  the  soul  has  no  part.  Unfortunately 
it  often  bears  the  outward  stamp  of  the  true 
coin,  and  passes  current  for  a  soul  act,  because 
men  cannot  look  into  the  hearts  of  other  men 
and  divine  motives. 

[HI] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

An  act  springing  from  the  mental  weighing 
of  circumstances  with  the  result  that  it  ought 
to  be  performed  because,  it  is  repeated,  its  con- 
sequences will  be  beneficial  is  entirely  different 
in  every  moral  characteristic  from  the  same  act 
having  its  motive  in  obedience  to  God,  irrespec- 
tive of  mundane  consequences.  Intelligent 
brutes  perform  the  former,  heretofore  shown, 
as  well  as  men,  but  the  soul  possessed  by  man 
is  only  competent  to  conceive  of  the  latter. 
Individuals  of  great  intellectual  acumen  are 
often  vastly  deficient  in  soul-morality.  With 
such  almost  every  act  is  the  result,  consciously 
or  sub-consciously,  of  the  calculation  of  bene- 
fits; whereas  others  of  less  knowledge  and 
mental  acumen,  but  of  more  spirituality,  make 
the  performance  of  many  moral  acts  the  result 
of  a  desire  to  obey  the  Deity. 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  for  the 
entire  nature  of  all  animals  to  contribute  to 
their  general  advancement.  A  strong  body 
improves  the  mind,  an  intelligent  mind  contri- 
butes to  the  development  of  the  body,  and  with 
men  a  high  spirituality  elevates  mentality  and 
a  strong  mentality  gives  clearness  to  soul  con- 
ceptions. Man  is  therefore  a  composite  being, 
wherein  all  his  parts  correlate  to  produce  the 
unit  organism.  One  may  have  been  evolved 
from  the  other  —  the  mind  from  highly  organ- 
ized matter  and  the  soul  from  intellectual  con- 

[112] 


Soul  Evolution 

cepts  possessed  only  by  man.  But  if  this  has 
been  the  process,  there  is  nothing  in  the  Mosaic 
narrative  contradictory  to  it.  The  First  Cause 
(which  the  Christian  believes  is  God,  and  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  assumes  as  a  necessity  for 
Evolution)  which  made  matter  possibly  en- 
dowed it  with  the  qualities  to  evolve  conscious- 
ness, next  intellectuality,  and  finally,  when  this 
mentality  reached  the  power  to  take  cognizance 
of  its  own  mental  conclusions,  and  uncon- 
sciously to  create  major  and  minor  premises  of 
them,  then  to  develop  the  soul  ability  to  recog- 
nize the  Godhead.  But  as  the  body,  mind,  and 
soul  of  man  exist  to-day,  they  represent  a  mys- 
terious trinity  to  be  perceived  as  matter  is  per- 
ceived, but  not  comprehended  any  more  than 
matter  can  be  understood.  A  trinity  in  which 
each  component  has  its  special  functions  to  per- 
form— the  body  under  the  impulse  of  the  mind 
to  harmonize  itself  with  its  environment;  the 
mind  to  comprehend  the  laws  of  nature  and 
make  them  servants  to  the  wants  of  the  body ; 
the  soul  to  lift  both  body  and  mind  from  the 
carnal  things  of  this  earth  by  the  contemplation 
of  the  Godhead,  and  to  love  its  neighbor  be- 
cause its  Heavenly  Father  has  so  commanded. 
This  command  being  founded  on  the  well- 
known  fact  that  the  highest  development  of 
the  human  race  can  take  place  only  when  Love 
binds  the  hearts  of  men. 

8  .     [113] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

There  is  yet  a  further  analogy  between  mind 
and  soul  evolution.  Individuals  starting  in 
youth  without  experience  or  knowledge  may 
become  by  effort,  for  example,  learned  and 
profound  logicians,  much  like  a  crude  machine 
of  rough  castings,  badly  fitting  parts,  slow  and 
defective  movements,  etc.,  is  transformed  by  in- 
telligent improvements,  lubrication  of  the  wear- 
ing surfaces,  and  adjustments  into  a  highly 
complex  and  perfect  mechanism  for  the  per- 
formance of  its  purposes,  so  the  individual  mind 
scarcely  able  at  first  to  concentrate  its  attention 
for  a  short  period  on  any  subjective  matter  of 
reasoning  is  enabled  by  constant  practice  to 
hold  its  mental  vision  with  wonderful  per- 
spicuity upon  the  most  abstruse  and  transcen- 
dental problems  until  they  are  solved  and  even 
to  revel  with  delight  in  the  process.  What 
must  have  been  the  mental  exhilaration  of  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  when  he  was  investigating  and 
proving  to  men  for  the  first  time  that  the  radius 
vector  of  each  planet  describes  equal  areas  in 
equal  times,  notwithstanding  a  planet  moves 
immensely  faster  when  it  approaches  the  sun ; 
or  that  if  a  body  move  in  an  ellipse  having  a 
centre  of  force  at  its  focus,  then  the  force  at 
different  points  in  the  orbit  must  vary  inversely 
as  the  square  of  the  distance  from  that  centre? 
To  attain  such  mastery  over  the  power  of 
thought,  to  hold  in  subjection  the  attention,  to 
["4] 


Soul  Evolution 

see  with  the  mental  vision  mental  deductions 
as  clearly  as  material  objects  are  seen  with  the 
eye,  this  demonstrates  the  marvellous  evolution 
of  the  mind  as  the  result  of  effort. 

So  with  the  soul.  Witness  the  fetichism  of 
the  savage  changed  to  the  worship  of  a  civilized 
people  —  lifting  their  thoughts  by  effort  to  the 
ideal  contemplation  of  the  attributes  of  Divinity. 
Individualizing,  many  men  have  started  life  with 
almost  an  entire  ignorance  of  the  Deity,  and  of 
their  obligation  to  Him.  In  some  way  or 
another  their  attention  has  been  called  to  the 
subject.  Consideration  is  then  given  to  His 
existence.  At  first,  slightly.  Next,  more  seri- 
ously. Finally,  the  whole  soul  is  enrapt  in  His 
contemplation.  The  individual  is  spiritually 
born  again,  and  as  great  a  change  is  wrought 
in  his  soul  as  existed  between  the  mind  of 
Newton  as  a  boy  and  the  mind  of  Newton 
solving  the  laws  of  gravitation. 

This  is  Soul  Evolution. 


[115] 


THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES 

THE  Holy  Scriptures  as  now  read  by  man- 
kind have  been  the  object  of  many 
attacks.  Some  writers  have  declared  them  to 
be  composed  largely  of  fables  or  myths.  The 
German  materialist,  Strauss,  stands  at  the  head 
of  this  class.  Others  have  attacked  their  relia- 
bility because  of  their  allegories,  alleged  dis- 
crepancies in  facts,  asserted  interpolations,  and 
incompatibility  of  some  parts  with  other  parts. 
Infidels  have  always  deemed  it  vital  in  order  to 
sustain  themselves  in  their  infidelity  to  show 
errors  in  these  writings,  and  granted  errors  are 
proven,  they  claim  that  a  God  of  all  knowledge 
could  not  have  been  their  author.  From  this 
argument  they  have  sought  to  draw  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  Scriptures  not  being  inerrant,  the 
God  therein  revealed  does  not  exist. 

The  purpose  of  this  treatise  does  not  require 
any  discussion  to  prove  the  inerrancy  of  the 
Scriptures.  But  it  does  assert,  and  it  will  be 
undertaken  to  be  demonstrated  broadly,  that 
the  Scriptures,  if  they  were  intended  to  play 
any  part  in  the  evolution  of  mankind,  are 
exactly,  in  every  respect,  what  they  should  be. 

[.16] 


The  Holy  Scriptures 

In  other  words,  if  the  Holy  Writings  had  been 
dictated  in  such  a  manner  by  the  Supreme 
Being  as  to  carry  overwhelming  conviction  to 
the  human  mind  —  such  a  certitude  that  the 
contradictory  of  its  revelation  could  be  demon- 
strated to  be  impossible  —  then  there  could  not 
have  been,  and  could  not  now  be,  any  growth 
in  the  knowledge  of  God,  or  soul  evolution. 
To  repeat  this  important  evolutionary  maxim, 
if  the  revelations  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  had 
been  given  in  such  a  clear  manner  as  to  import 
their  inspiration  beyond  all  possible  doubt  to 
those  classes  of  men  who  are  now  disbelievers, 
then  their  words  would  have  left  no  room  for 
Faith,  for  the  exercise  of  Free  Will  in  believ- 
ing or  not  believing  in  the  Godhead,  or  for 
efforts  on  the  part  of  the  soul  to  grow  in 
spirituality. 

The  basic  principles  of  Evolution  are  two: 
namely.  That  the  great  Author  of  organized 
matter,  of  mind,  and   of  soul  has  determined. 

1.  That  none  of  these  states  should  be  created 
perfect  —  that  excellencies  should  be  reached 
only   from    lower   conditions    by   growth;    and 

2.  This  growth  should  be  attained  solely  by 
efforts — by  efforts  to  modify  the  physical  struc- 
ture and  functions ;  by  efforts  which  enable  the 
intellectual  faculties  to  hold  their  attention  on 
a  single  subject  until  its  components  are  an- 
alyzed and  they  are  classed  in  their  appropriate 

[117] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

category;  by  efforts  which  reveal  God  to  the 
soul,  the  more  and  more  He  is  contemplated, 
thereby  giving  it  the  wisdom  to  overturn  the 
worship  of  idols,  of  beasts,  and  of  matter,  and 
the  ability  to  resist  sin  —  sin,  in  the  sense  here 
used,  being  broadly  another  name  for  soul  de- 
generation. But  as  no  effort  would  be  made 
to  search  for  food  if  abundance  was  at  hand ; 
no  effort  would  be  persevered  in  to  solve  the 
problems,  for  example,  of  electricity  and  steam 
power,  if  these  sciences  were  so  absolutely  per- 
fect that  nothing  more  was  to  be  learned ;  so 
no  effort  would  be  attempted  to  work  out  the 
infinitudes  of  the  Supreme  Being,  the  love  and 
atonement  of  the  Saviour  and  the  ImmortaHty 
of  the  Soul  as  revealed,  if  the  Scriptures  were 
so  clear  as  to  enforce  conviction  by  demonstra- 
tion. The  whole  scheme  of  Divine  Revelation 
is  in  accord  with  this  fundamental  principle  of 
Evolution ;  otherwise  there  would  exist  this 
anomalous  state  that  growth  and  development 
would  be  the  rule  as  to  the  body  and  the  mind, 
but  as  to  spiritual  matters  man  would  be  en- 
dowed with  full  knowledge  of  all  divine  things. 
None  can  estimate  the  effect  of  such  an  unbal- 
anced character.  Man  would  be  the  feeble 
creature  he  is  to-day  as  to  his  physical  state  — 
the  comparatively  ignorant  being  of  even  this 
twentieth  century,  who  has  scarcely  more  than 
reached  the  threshold  of  the  temple  of  knowl- 
[ii8] 


The  Holy  Scriptures 

edge,  and  yet  as  to  spiritual  matters,  he  would 
possess  a  certitude  and  fulness  of  knowledge  as 
to  the  nature  of  God  and  immortality,  which 
would  make  him  God-like.  It  is  submitted 
that  the  Supreme  Being  has  been  wiser  than  the 
infidel.  He  has  not  allowed  Himself  to  be  seen 
by  men.  His  essence  is  just  so  far  veiled  as  to 
be  apprehensible  but  not  understood.  Christ 
did  not  demonstrate  Himself  beyond  a  doubt 
either  to  the  apostles  or  to  the  Jews,  yet  He 
gave  enough  knowledge  of  Himself  to  them 
and  to  the  world  for  untold  millions  of  men 
to  look  up  to  Him  with  faith.  The  future  state 
has  not  been  made  a  provable  certainty,  but 
men's  hearts  instinctively  strive  to  penetrate 
the  thin  veil  which  hangs  before  the  Hfe  beyond 
the  grave.  So  with  the  Holy  Scriptures.  They 
take  a  corresponding  place  in  the  evolutionary 
scheme.  They  never  were  intended  to  dispense 
with  Faith  in  them.  Their  so-called  discrepan- 
cies, their  allegorical  style,  their  narratives  of 
supernatural  events,  their  revelations  of  the 
Deity,  their  records  of  the  life  and  love  of 
Christ,  their  perfect  precepts  for  moral  conduct, 
their  violation  of  some  of  the  rules  of  credibility 
which  men  adopt  to  deceive  are  all  mingled 
together,  and  have  this  extraordinary  effect 
that  their  inspiration  is  more  and  more  convinc- 
ing to  those  who  study  them  in  a  spirit  of  right- 
eousness, and  less  and  less  persuasive  to  those 
["9] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

who  read  their  pages  seeking  to  find  a  founda- 
tion for  their  infidelity. 

In  this  respect  these  materiah'stic  evolutionists^ 
are  the  most  strangely  unscientific  of  all  men. 
Huxley,  Haeckel,  Strauss,  Clifford,  Lewes,  etc., 
have  minds  of  great  natural  and  acquired  ability. 
They  understand,  equally  with  any  other  men 
of  the  world,  the  fundamental  principles  of  Evo- 
lution. None  know  better  than  they  that  evolu- 
tion only  follows  effort,  and  that  effort  will  not 
be  made  to  acquire  either  food  or  knowledge, 
if  either  already  exists,  and  consequently  by 
analogy,  they  should  know,  if  the  aspirations 
of  the  soul  —  the  soul  whether  viewed  as  a 
special  creation,  or  the  development  of  intel- 
lectual faculties  —  were  entirely  satisfied  by 
plenary  evidence  and  conviction  of  the  truths 
of  Christianity,  that  then  it  would  make  no 
effort  to  grow  in  the  knowledge  of  God,  and 
evolutionary  advancement,  based  on  Free-Will 
efforts  and  self-denial,  would  be  unknown. 

These  same  materialists  are  also  most  contra- 
dictory in  another  view  of  the  subject.  There 
is  not  one  who  will  deny  these  same  Scriptures 
have  been  a  most  potent  agent  for  civilization 
in  modern  days.  Such  men  are  philosophers 
—  students  of  wisdom  to  benefit  humanity  — 
and  yet  with  this  main  object  of  their  lives  con- 

^  Agnosticism  and  Materialism  discussed  as  scientific 
propositions,  see  "The  Testimony  of  Reason." 

[120] 


The  Holy  Scriptures 

stantly  before  them,  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
vast  good  the  Scriptures  have  wrought,  greater 
than  all  other  causes  together,  they  seek  to  tear 
down  and  utterly  destroy  this  great  aid  to  the 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  evolution  of 
mankind,  and  to  substitute  nothing  in  its  place. 
The  conclusion,  therefore,  of  this  brief  appli- 
cation of  the  fundamental  position  of  Evolution 
to  the  Holy  Scriptures  is  that  to  be  the  inspired 
word  of  God,  they  are  exactly  as  definite,  as 
convincing,  as  inerrant  as  they  should  be;  and 
the  Christian  may  look  without  the  slightest 
solicitude  upon  the  attacks  of  materialists  to 
prove  their  recorded  events  to  be  myths,  and 
regard  with  indifference  the  efforts  of  infidel 
scholars  to  show  discrepancies  and  interpola- 
tions, knowing  full  well  that  if  their  character  is 
allegorical  in  places,  and  their  statements  some- 
times hard  to  be  reconciled,  they  were  made  so 
for  the  express  purpose  by  the  Supreme  Being 
to  promote  study  of  their  mysteries  and  revela- 
tions, and  to  develop  Faith  and  thus  advance 
soul  evolution. 


[121] 


GOD^ 

THE  primary  concept  of  the  soul  is  the 
existence  of  some  being  or  power  supe- 
rior to  nature.  This  idea  has  been  and  is,  as 
far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  ahvays  and  only,  a  part 
of  humanity.  Notwithstanding  the  abyss  of  his 
degradation  the  savage  instinctively  feels  there 
is  a  force,  an  intelligence  beyond  his  comprehen- 
sion governing  the  storm,  the  flood,  the  return  of 
the  seasons,  his  own  life  and  death.  Depend- 
ent upon  the  general  knowledge  and  modified  by 
the  mentality  of  each  individual,  this  primary 
conception  of  God  has  taken  almost  every  con- 
ceivable form  of  thought.  Idols  in  the  shape 
of  animals  have  been  made  to  embody  the  idea 
of  this  supernatural  being;  fire  has  been  wor- 
shipped ;  toads  and  birds  have  been  adored ; 
composite  images  of  part  man  and  part  beast; 
a  multitudinous  deity  invented,  assigning  special 
beings  to  rule  over  special  phenomena  of  nature 
and  the  various  affections  of  men,  as  in  the 
Grecian  mythology;  in  a  sentence,  the  soul 
guided  by  its  best  intelligence  has  in  all  ages,  in 
all  parts  of  the  earth,  among  all  men,  been  en- 

1  For  a  demonstration  of  the  existence  of  an  intelligent 
Supreme  Being,  see  "  The  Testimony  of  Reason." 
[122] 


God 

deavoring  to  grasp  and  gratify  a  great  instinct 
of  its  existence  and  render  the  best  homage  it 
could  to  its  God. 

But  it  is  apparent  the  endowment  of  unclean 
animals  with  the  attributes  of  divinity  must  be 
debasing  to  the  worshipper,  because  mankind  is 
so  constituted  it  cannot  entertain  low  thoughts 
without  their  modifying  its  entire  character  and 
conduct;  it  cannot  associate  with  evil  without 
becoming  contaminated;  it  cannot  hold  to  the 
belief  in  a  Jupiter  or  a  Venus,  as  a  god  and  god- 
dess, without  impairing  most  sadly  its  morals, 
and  finding  in  their  supposed  licentiousness  a 
satisfactory  excuse  for  any  excesses  it  may 
choose  to  indulge  in. 

So  that  the  religious  sentiment,  being  so  uni- 
versal among  nearly  all  men,  and  so  potent  in 
modifying  their  conduct,  constitutes  a  most  im- 
portant element  of  their  characters  and  its  devel- 
opment along  lines  of  debasing  tendencies,  or 
those  of  high  and  ennobling  spirituality  must 
make  the  most  tremendous  difference  in  their 
evolution. 

At  the  period  of  which  Moses  wrote,  about 
fifteen  hundred  years  B.C.,  the  most  enlightened 
portions  of  the  world,  as  far  as  history  speaks, 
were  oppressed  with  pagan  idolatry.  The  wor- 
ship of  idols  was  common  and  many  base  prac- 
tices accompanied  their  adoration.  It  was  at 
that  time  the  Christian's  God  revealed  Himself 
[  123  ] 


Agreement  of  Evolutioh  and  Christianity 

in  the  Divine  Word  of  the  Old  Testament,  mirac- 
ulously preserved  to  us  through  the  destructions 
of  fire  and  vandalism  which  have  so  persistently- 
devastated  all  the  ancient  seats  of  learning. 
Nothing  comparable  to  the  power  and  infinitude 
of  His  majesty  revealed  through  the  Mosaic 
narrative  of  Creation  had  been  previously  con- 
ceived of  by  the  enlightened  mind.  A  grand 
thought  illuminating  the  conception  of  God  as 
revealed  in  the  Old  Testament  was  His  incompre- 
hensibility. Overpowering  sublimity;  fathom- 
less infinitude  as  to  time  and  space, — "  I  am  what 
I  am,"  —  are  some  of  the  attributes  which  stimu- 
late apprehension  and  contemplation  of  the 
Godhead,  and  in  so  doing  raise  the  soul  of  the 
idealistic  thinker  to  regions  of  spirituality  un- 
attainable otherwise. 

No  man  hath  seen  God  and  lived.  Nothing 
would  have  been  more  destructive  to  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  soul  than  for  the  Deity  to  have  been 
visible.  Full  knowledge  causes  effort  to  cease 
—  for  effort  cannot  struggle  for  knowledge  if 
knowledge  is  already  possessed.  The  world  has, 
therefore,  in  the  partial  revelation  God  has 
given  of  Himself,  just  so  much  knowledge  and 
no  more,  namely,  an  apprehension  of  His  power 
and  personality,  but  not  comprehension,  as  the 
profoundest  wisdom  would  have  revealed  in 
order  to  produce  the  result  of  continuous  and 
fascinating  contemplation. 
[  124] 


God 

So,  too,  by  His  moral  attributes  does  the  God 
worshipped  by  the  Christian  world  draw  all  men 
to  higher  and  ever  higher  standards  of  excel- 
lence. Reverence  for  His  Holy  Name  teaches 
the  soul  dignity  and  respect  for  holy  things. 
Inflexible  obedience  to  His  commands  cultivates 
self-denial  and  control.  His  commandments 
without  exception  are  elevating,  tending  to  evolve 
the  noblest  traits  of  the  entire  man,  while  correl- 
ative disobedience  surely  drags  the  individual  into 
degradation.  In  fine,  it  is  fearlessly  asserted,  no 
scheme  devised  by  the  united  wisdom  of  the 
world  to  produce  evolution  or  development  of 
moral  improvement  in  mankind  could  have  con- 
ceived of  a  nobler  God  than  that  revealed  in  the 
Bible.  He  is  therein  represented  to  be  omnipo- 
tent; no  limit  restrains  His  powers.  The  mind 
tries  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  this  word,  but  fails 
as  much  as  it  would  in  the  conception  of  a  quin- 
tillion  of  acts,  and  a  quintillion  of  them  is  only 
a  small  unit  in  the  scale  of  omnipotence.  He 
is  omnipresent.  God's  Being  permeates  all  space 
—  alike  those  distant  nebulae  of  the  Galaxy  and 
the  cell  of  the  flesh  whose  last  division  has  yet 
baffled  the  power  of  the  microscope.  His  omni- 
science knows  all  things.  Even  the  secret 
workings  of  the  heart  of  man  are  as  distinctly 
perceived  as  his  spoken  words  are  heard  by  his 
fellow-men.  He  has  revealed  Himself  as  infi- 
nite in  the  past,  eternal  in  the  future.      Pages 

[125] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

have  been  written  of  the  infinitudes  of  God,  and 
every  page  has  evolved,  in  the  writer  and  in  the 
reader,  an  intenser  spirituality  by  the  soul  con- 
templation of  this  impersonification  of  power 
and  holiness  —  of  righteousness  and  morality, 
not  obscured  by  one  blot,  one  earthly  spot. 
The  highest  transcendentahsm  of  the  soul 
cannot  divine  His  essence.  There  is  still 
something  beyond,  something  overpowering, 
something  grander  than  thought,  something 
engaging,  ever  stimulating  contemplation,  ever 
feeding  with  delight  the  unappeasable  appetite 
for  holy  things. 

But  in  addition  to  all  this  sublimity,  the  Chris- 
tian's God  has  revealed  Himself  as  a  loving 
Father.  The  poor  suffering  heart  of  humanity 
longs  for  a  father  —  some  soul  on  which  it  may 
recline  its  weak  and  wearied  nature.  Like  an 
earthly  father  His  person  demands  reverence, 
His  commands  must  be  obeyed  because  they 
are  for  the  good  of  His  child,  but  to  the  obedi- 
ent, to  even  the  erring  but  repentant  prodigal. 
His  arms  and  heart  are  ever  open  to  receive  and 
comfort  him.  No  juggernaut  car  to  immolate 
beloved  infants,  no  burning  of  human  flesh  to 
appease  a  demoniacal  thirst  for  blood  soils  the 
Christian's  God.  He  is  a  loving  and  righteous 
Father,  and  develops  the  souls  of  His  children 
by  His  own  example  of  parental  love. 

It  is  seriously  asked.  Is  the  necessity  for  effort  to 

[126] 


God 

acquire  food  or  air  or  water  more  evolutionary  in 
its  effects  on  organisms  than  the  revelation  God 
has  given  of  Himself  in  the  Scriptures  is  on  the 
soul  of  man?  Can  the  enlightened  mind  of  the 
most  profound  philosopher  conceive  of  a  scheme 
better  adapted  to  elevate  and  ennoble  spirit- 
uality than  the  conception  the  Christian  mind 
entertains  of  God  ?  If  it  cannot,  then  this  revela- 
tion of  Himself  proves  the  strong  probability  of 
two  things  :  first,  that  the  partial  revelation  of  the 
Jehovah  of  the  Bible  is  as  much  a  plan  of  soul 
evolution  as  the  necessity  of  animals  accommoda- 
ting themselves  to  their  unsatisfying  environ- 
ments; and  second,  if  the  laws  of  material  and 
mental  evolution  were  ordained  by  a  Supreme 
Being,  then  inasmuch  as  the  moral  nature  of 
mankind  is  as  important  to  be  developed  as  its 
body  and  mind,  the  revelation  of  this  Godhead 
had  the  same  origin. 


[  127] 


CHRIST  A  FACTOR  OF   SOUL 
EVOLUTION  1 

THE  second  fundamental  article  of  Chris- 
tian belief  is  the  Divinity  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  as  recorded  in  the  New  Testament. 

It  is  impossible  in  a  purposely  brief  treatise 
to  encompass  the  narration  of  the  evolutionary 
influence  on  mankind  of  Christ's  mission  and 
sacrifice.  A  volume  would  scarcely  suffice  to 
specify  adequately  His  most  wonderful  —  noth- 
ing short  of  miraculous  —  effect  on  the  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  evolution  of  man. 

God  has  revealed  Himself  to  mankind  as  the 
Creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  as  a  Ruler 
who  has  established  moral  laws  for  the  govern- 
ment and  development  of  the  human  race,  with 
punishment  for  disobedience.  For  some  cause, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  this  treatise  it  is  unim- 
portant to  inquire  what,  man  finds  himself  prone 
to  disobey  the  commands  of  this  Supreme 
Being.  He  has  the  innate  knowledge  of  his 
inability  to  love  God  with  all  his  heart,  his 
soul,  and  his  mind,  and  his  neighbor  as  himself 

1  For  circumstantial  proof  that  Christ  was  the  Son  of  God, 
see  "  The  Testimony  of  Reason." 

[128] 


Christ  a  Factor  of  Soul  Evolution 

He  knows,  moreover,  the  attainment  of  this  soul 
development  represents  the  highest  spiritual 
evolution  of  humanity,  and  yet  he  persists  either 
in  direct  violation  of  his  duty  or  in  passive 
neglect  of  its  injunctions,  and  is,  therefore,  un- 
worthy to  claim  recognition  and  favor  of  his 
supreme  and  just  Creator. 

In  such  a  state  of  affairs  man  would  be  hope- 
less if  some  advocate  was  not  available  to  plead 
his  cause  and  propitiate  offended  Majesty. 

A  person  absolutely  without  hope  is  des- 
perate, relaxes  effort  and  submits  supinely  to 
fate.  The  cessation  of  effort  is  death  to 
evolution.  The  life  of  all  evolution  is  effort, 
continuous,  unremitting  effort.  The  revelation, 
therefore,  of  a  Saviour  sent  from  God  to  be  a 
sacrifice  by  death  upon  the  cross  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world,  and  thereby  to  establish  a 
mediatorship,  unceasing  in  its  advocacy  for  all 
those  who  with  faithful  hearts  are  striving  to 
obey  the  commands  of  God,  though  they  fail 
daily  seventy  times  seven,  has  the  most  extraor- 
dinary power  to  stimulate  zeal  in  well-doing 
and  faith  in  the  Messiahship  of  Christ,  and  these 
efforts  lift  the  soul  to  a  high  degree  of  moral 
evolution. 

Having  this  advocate  with  the  Father  —  thus 
being  "  not  without  hope  "  —  and  man  realizing 
his  desire  for  eternal  salvation  is  dependent  on 
9  [  129  ] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

his  faith  in  Christ  —  an  environment  most  con- 
ducive to  stimulate  moral  energy  —  the  Chris- 
tian Religion  offers,  as  a  Messiah,  a  messenger 
of  good-will;  not  a  warrior,  or  earthly  king 
with  temporal  power,  but  a  "  Prince  of  Peace." 

Neither  physical,  mental,  nor  moral  evolution 
can  take  place  in  a  state  of  personal  insecurity. 
A  prime  necessity  which  displaces  all  other 
considerations  is  self-preservation.  Threatened 
destruction  will  occupy  the  mind  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  sciences.  The  intellect  must  be 
calm  for  it  to  investigate  the  laws  of  nature  and 
make  them  subject  to  its  will  —  in  a  word,  peace 
must  abide  in  the  heart.  Now  Christ  taught, 
above  all  things  else,  peace.  If  thy  brother 
smite  thee  on  the  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the 
other  also.  Like  a  lamb  before  its  slayer  which 
opens  not  its  mouth,  He  allowed  Himself  to  be 
crucified,  as  if  He  could  not  have  summoned  a 
legion  of  angels  to  have  delivered  Himself  from 
the  handful  of  Jews  and  Roman  soldiers  who 
put  Him  to  death.  Those  who  take  up  the 
sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword.  Love  thy 
brother.  These  were  some  of  the  messages  He 
delivered  to  men.  When  the  student  of  history 
recalls  the  conflicts  of  ante-Christian  centuries 
—  times  in  which  there  was  Hterally  nothing 
but  wars  and  subjugation  of  neighboring  peo- 
ples over  the  whole  of  those  parts  of  Asia, 
Africa,  and  Europe,  of  which  the  world  has 
[  130] 


Christ  a  Factor  of  Soul  Evolution 

any  record,  and  the  consequent  slavery  and 
slaughter  of  all  captured,  as  have  recently  been 
perpetrated  on  the  Christian  Bulgarians  by  the 
Turks ;  when  population  was  kept  down  to  the 
lowest  numbers  in  consequence  of  such  destruc- 
tion, and  it  is  compared  with  the  ever-growing 
reign  of  peace  in  Christendom,  wherein  men 
have  had  such  comparative  security  as  to  per- 
mit them  to  cultivate  the  soil  more  intelligently, 
and  thereby  cause  more  abundant  food  to  be 
produced  for  the  nourishment  of  the  body,  the 
effect  of  which  has  been  increased  physical 
development  and  larger  populations;  wherein 
men  have  under  the  influences  of  greater  per- 
sonal safety  expanded  their  intellects  by  the 
acquisition  of  useful  knowledge  and  the  practice 
of  the  arts,  —  aye,  this  very  book  they  are  read- 
ing, the  clothes  they  wear,  the  luxurious  resi- 
dences which  shelter  them,  and  the  ten  thousand 
temples  wherein  they  offer  their  thanks,  their 
prayers,  and  raise  their  voices  in  praise  to  God, 
are  the  proximate  results  of  the  peaceful  teach- 
ings of  this  Christ,  —  all  men  must  admit  that 
the  Christian's  Saviour  has  been  the  most  im- 
portant factor  in  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
evolution  mankind  has  known.  No  philosopher 
can  estimate  the  myriad  ways  in  which  His 
Influence  has  worked  for  good.  No  skeptic  is 
beyond  its  refining  power,  although  he  partakes 
of  its  benign  benefits  without  thanking  the 
[•31] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

Giver.  The  whole  civilized  world  —  Jew  and 
Turk,  Chinese  and  Indian  —  all,  more  or  less, 
bask  in  the  advancement  wrought  by  the  moral 
influence  exerted  by  Christ. 

The  logical  deduction  from  the  mere  existence 
of  this  extraordinary  moralizing  power  in  a 
world  where  everything  is  apparently  the  result 
of  design  under  the  rule  of  a  beneficent  provi- 
dence, is,  that  no  such  effects  would  probably 
have  been  allowed  to  operate  unless  they  had 
had  the  immediate  sanction  of  the  Supreme 
Ruler,  and  having  that  sanction  they  must  stand 
for  truth. 

If  Christ  had  come  as  a  mighty  earthly  king, 
wielding  the  sceptre  of  power,  putting  men  and 
nations  under  His  dominion  by  moral  persua- 
sion if  He  could,  and  if  not,  by  force  of  arms, 
and  in  so  far  as  He  controlled  by  force,  de- 
stroying the  free  will  of  those  He  subjugated, 
His  kingdom  would  be  analogous  to  the  reigns 
of  Alexander,  Caesar,  and  Napoleon,  and  no 
more  moral  evolution  would  have  attended  His 
advent  than  was  consequent  on  theirs. 

But  singularly,  even  superhumanly  in  fore- 
thought, every  recorded  circumstance  of  Christ's 
life  indicates  the  intensest  humility.  He  was 
born  in  a  manger,  passed  His  early  years  not 
among  princes,  but  as  a  poor  Nazarene,  began 
His  ministry  without  friends  or  money,  and 
[  132] 


Christ  a  Factor  of  Soul  Evolution 

suffered  an  ignominious  death  upon  the  cross 
between  two  thieves.  It  would  never  have 
occurred  to  the  wisest  son  of  man  to  have 
inaugurated  a  world-compelling  reign  under 
such  apparently  disadvantageous  circumstances. 
Men  would  have  sought  then,  as  now,  all  the 
adventitious  aids  which  wait  on  wealth,  official 
connections,  and  the  pandering  to  public  opinion 
or  prejudice.  And  yet  so  it  has  turned  out  in 
looking  over  the  past  that  this  very  lowliness 
and  humility  combined  with  the  unswerving  and 
uncompromising  moral  uprightness  of  Christ 
have  been  the  most  powerful  attractions  of  His 
ministry. 

There  can  be  no  all-engrossing  love  of  God  if 
it  is  allied  with  luxury;  there  can  be  no  love  of 
neighbor  as  one's  self  if  an  individual  is  seeking 
to  dominate  from  pride  his  fellow-man.  Poverty 
within  reasonable  Hmits  and  humility  of  heart 
are  absolutely  essential  for  high  soul  evolution, 
and  Christ  in  His  poverty ;  in  His  spotless, 
sinless  life;  by  His  extraordinarily  elevated 
sentiments,  teaches  both  in  the  most  perfect 
manner.  These  circumstances  have,  therefore, 
combined  on  their  side  of  the  problem  to  ad- 
vance soul  evolution. 

All  men  are  more  or  less  skeptical.     In  pro- 
portion  to    their   knowledge   they    demand   to 
know  the  causes    of  things.     A  child  accepts 
[  133] 


Agreement  of  Evolutiori  and  Christianity 

the  statement  of  his  father  as  sufficient.  This 
same  child  grown  to  be  an  analytic  scientist, 
who  has  spent  his  life  accepting  no  proposition 
except  after  investigation,  is  disposed  to  reject 
all  statements  contrary  to  ordinary  experience. 
Things  supernatural,  not  clearing  themselves  to 
his  understanding,  are  in  many  cases  regarded 
as  unworthy  of  belief.  Yet  this  same  scientist 
does  not  understand  the  essential  nature  of 
matter,  the  reason  for  the  existence  of  any 
law  of  nature ;  nor  can  he  disprove  the  super- 
natural. His  argument  against  the  supernatural 
is  purely  negative, — namely,  in  his  personal  ex- 
perience he  has  never  known  the  thing  to  exist. 
But  it  is  plain  as  a  mere  proposition  of  logic  a 
thing  cannot  be  declared  not  to  have  existed 
until  it  can  be  proven  it  could  not  have  taken 
place.  This  no  philosopher  can  prove  as  to 
any  spiritual  fact. 

If  our  Lord  had  not  died  and  risen,  had  not 
performed  in  His  Resurrection  the  greatest  of 
all  His  miracles  in  attestation  of  His  divinity, 
men  would  have  declared  He  was  simply  a 
mortal,  and  His  claims  to  be  the  Son  of  God, 
a  falsehood.  It  is  inconceivable  for  His  minis- 
try to  have  had  and  still  have  an  evolutionary 
effect  without  His  death  and  ascension.  And 
this  is  exactly  what  took  place.  The  most  ap- 
propriate events  were  employed  to  produce  the 
most   desirable    results.      These    circumstances 

[134] 


Christ  a  Factor  of  Soul  Evolution 

alone  dispel  the  theory  of  chance,  and  raise 
the  case  to  one  of  the  most  profound  and  far- 
sighted  intelligence. 

Not  only  as  an  attestation  of  His  being  the 
Son  of  God  do  His  crucifixion  and  resurrection 
contribute,  but  these  great  evidences  of  His 
love  for  mankind  forever  draw  the  souls  of  all 
who  contemplate  that  love  with  the  most  en- 
dearing and  tender  sympathies.  Love  begets 
love.  We  involuntarily  love  those  who  sacrifice 
themselves  for  us.  Life  is  the  most  prized  pos- 
session man  owns.  To  give  one's  life  for  another 
is  the  greatest  gift.  Christ  gave  His  life  for 
men ;  therefore,  men  are  most  powerfully  drawn 
to  love  this  Saviour,  or  to  state  the  proposition 
more  generally,  the  very  best  agency  to  effect 
soul  evolution  has  been  employed. 

The  above  rapid  presentation  of  a  few  of  the 

points  in  our  Lord's  ministry  will  show  how,  by 
the  same  train  of  reasoning,  every  circumstance 
of  His  personal  conduct.  His  teachings,  and  His 
revelation  of  His  own  Divine  Origin  can  be 
elaborated  and  proved  to  have  been  the  wisest 
means  to  lift  the  spiritual  nature  of  mankind. 


[135] 


THE   HOLY   GHOST 

THE  third  basic  article  of  Christian  faith 
is  the  recognition  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
as  a  component  of  a  triune  Godhead. 

The  Trinity  is  a  great  mystery.  It  was 
doubtless  intended  by  God  it  should  be  so. 
He  has  not  revealed  the  ultimate  essence  of 
matter  or  mind,  or  the  reason  for  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Cosmos  on  the  lines  which 
exist,  or  why  the  laws  of  nature  operate.  He 
has  not  made  known  the  elements  of  the 
spirit  of  man.  If  all  of  these  things  are  un- 
known, why  should  He  have  disclosed  His 
own  ineffable  Spirit?  What  possible  good  in 
the  moral  development  of  man  would  have 
come  from  Jehovah  unfolding  Himself  to  His 
creatures?  On  the  contrary,  all  the  efforts  to 
fathom  the  fathomless  infinitudes  of  Deity 
would  be  rendered  supererogatory,  and  the 
ennobling  effects  wrought  by  persevering  con- 
templation of  the  essence  of  the  Godhead  would 
be  lost  to  mankind. 

The  Trinity  is  only  one  of  many  mysteries 
met  with  by  advanced  intellect.  Nature  is  full 
[«36] 


The  Holy  Ghost 

of  the  occult.  The  limit  of  the  understanding 
in  this  respect  is  the  mere  observance  of  phe- 
nomena and  their  classification,  without  in  a 
single  instance  being  able  to  state  their  causes. 
A  stone  released  from  an  elevation  falls  to  the 
earth.  No  one  really  knows  why  it  does  so. 
The  usual  answer  is,  the  earth  attracts  it.  But 
why  does  matter  attract  matter?  Hypotheses 
have  been  advanced,  but  no  scientist  has  dem- 
onstrated an  explanation.  Animal  organism  is 
either  composed  of  matter  and  mind,  or  the 
latter  is  the  sequence  of  the  former.  Who 
comprehends  this  dual  composition  or  this  se- 
quence ?  It  is  as  much  a  mystery  as  the  Trinity 
of  God.  Shall  we  declare  the  living  animal 
organism  does  not  exist  because  we  do  not 
fathom  its  dual  nature?  If  not,  why  shall  we 
reject  the  Trinity  because  its  metaphysical 
quaHty  is  beyond  our  understanding?  Scientific 
men  are  actively  engaged,  endeavoring  to  solve 
the  mysterious  union  of  matter  and  mind,  and 
start  a  spark  of  life  in  inorganic  matter,  and 
in  so  doing  are  practising  a  process  of  mental 
evolution.  So  Christian  disciples  are  forever 
contemplating  the  nature  of  the  revealed  Triune 
God,  and  in  the  process  of  unravelling  this 
incomprehensible  yet  apprehensible  concep- 
tion, are  growing  in  soul  evolution.  The  mo- 
ment all  the  relations  of  matter  and  mind  are 
known,  scientists  will  stop  their  investigations 

[137] 


Agreement  of  Evolution 'and  Christianity 

—  the  moment  man  comprehends  God,  he  will 
probably  lose  all  interest  in  contemplating 
Him. 

Wonderful,  most  wonderful  is  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  on  the  destinies  of  many  men. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons  in  the  United 
States  of  America  would  be  able  to  testify  how 
His  mysterious  influence  has  entered  their  souls 
and  shaken  them  to  their  life-centres,  as  no 
other  emotion,  as  not  even  the  love  for  their 
hfe-mates  has  done,  and  mate-love  is  the  most 
powerful  of  the  passions.  Away  down,  reaching 
deeper  depths,  encompassing  the  noblest  senti- 
ments, goes  this  mighty  power,  irresistible,  into 
the  souls  of  many  men.  Its  manifestations  are 
not  always  identical,  but  there  are  certain  quali- 
ties ever  present  —  a  recognition  of  God,  a 
sense  of  disobedience  to  Him  and  unworthi- 
ness;  a  desire  for  pardon  to  be  obtained  only 
by  the  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  uni- 
versality of  these  sentiments  proves  the  proba- 
bility of  the  truth  of  the  ideas  they  represent. 
This  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  is  a 
mighty  factor  in  soul  evolution.  It  often  comes 
as  violently  as  the  wind  of  a  tornado ;  as  terri- 
fying as  a  prairie  fire ;  as  overpowering  as  water 
in  a  flood  with  sweeping,  drowning  violence. 
To  others,  as  the  blessed  and  gentle  dew  of 
heaven;     as  sunshine   vivifying  the   heart;    as 

[138] 


The  Holy  Ghost 

the  whispering  breeze  speaking  softly  to  the 
soul;  but  whether  one  or  the  other,  praise 
be  to  God  for  the  regenerating  influence  of 
His  Holy  Spirit  in  the  evolution  of  the  soul 
of  man. 


[139] 


IMMORTALITY   OF  THE   SOUL* 

IF  man  was  assured  his  life  on  this  earth  was 
the  end  of  his  existence,  the  greatest  induce- 
ment he  now  possesses  for  good  conduct  would 
be  lost.  While  this  is  a  most  beautiful  world 
to  live  in,  and  so  attractive  that  all  sane  and 
healthy  persons  are  loth  to  leave  its  fascinations 
and  to  pass  either  to  a  blissful  immortality  or 
to  nothingness  —  yet  so  severe  is  the  labor 
essential  to  provide  for  the  necessities  and  com- 
forts of  life :  so  feeble  the  body  in  contest  with 
the  productive  forces  of  nature ;  so  disappoint- 
ing are  the  results  of  man's  best  efforts  in  what- 
ever department  his  energies  may  be  engaged ; 
so  vain  and  illusory  his  ambitions  that  rapine 
and  plunder  would  take  the  place  of  fatiguing 
effort  if  he  was  not  restrained  by  State  and 
divine  laws;  listless  idleness  would  dwarf  the 
mind,  and  in  the  general  stagnation,  self-respect 
and  ambition  would  be  unknown. 

It  is  the  thought,  he  is  only  a  sojourner  here ; 
that  in  a  few  short  years  he  will  enter  upon  an 

1  For  a  discussion  of  the  probability  of  the  Immortality  of 
the  Soul  from  rational  considerations,  see  "  The  Testimony  of 
Reason." 

[  140] 


Immortality  of  the  Soul 

existence  incomparably  superior  to  all  present 
experiences  that  endows  this  mundane  life  with 
its  chief  joy  to  those  hearts  which  have  realized 
its  comparative  nothingness.  In  it  they  see 
a  school  where  the  virtues  of  heaven  are  to  be 
learned,  and  the  evil  propensities  of  humanity 
to  be  curbed  and  subdued  to  the  extent  of  ren- 
dering themselves  acceptable  inhabitants  for  an 
abode  of  purity  and  love.  Its  trials  they  trust 
will  be  of  short  duration,  with  an  existence  of 
ineffable  peace  and  happiness  awaiting  them, 
provided  they  are  worthy ;  because  it  is  against 
common  reason,  unsupported  by  even  the  uni- 
versal conceit  of  the  heart,  for  men  who  have 
recklessly  given  over  their  lives  to  debauchery, 
murder,  and  evil  to  believe  they  will  inherit 
without  repentance  the  bliss  of  heaven.  It  is 
consequently  impossible  to  overestimate  the 
evolutionary  value  on  the  soul  of  the  hope  of 
immortality  which  Christianity  inculcates.  The 
belief  in  a  future  life  distinctly  raises  man  above 
the  level  of  the  brute  creation.  It  makes  his 
existence  extend  to  infinity.  It  causes  the 
soul  to  take  on  some  of  the  attributes  of  the 
Deity.  Without  immortality  man  becomes  a 
brother  of  the  beasts ;  with  immortality,  a  son 
of  God. 

Prolongation  of  this  argument  in  unnecessary. 
Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  the  Christian 
belief  of  Immortality  is  a  most  powerful  motive 

[  141  ] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

in  spiritual  evolution,  and  for  which  belief  no 
other  dogma  has  been  efficiently  substituted. 


Nor  does  Christianity  ask  adherence  to  any 
proposition  the  contradictory  of  which  can  be 
proved  to  be  true.  That  the  soul  of  man  is  not 
immortal  cannot  be  demonstrated.  It  is  ad- 
mitted that  so  far  as  human  knowledge  extends 
no  one  has  any  experience  of  either  a  mind  or 
soul  independent  of  a  physical  body,  and  this  is 
the  sole  circumstance  of  value  capable  of  being 
urged  by  materialists  against  immortahty.  But 
on  the  other  hand  : 

1.  Who  knows  the  nature  of  mind?  Who  can 
define  the  substance  of  that  faculty' which  recog- 
nizes God?  It  is  unscientific  to  declare  such 
entities  cannot  exist  without  a  body  until  their 
essential  components  can  with  accuracy  be  de- 
fined ;  and  this  no  philosopher  or  scientist  has 
done. 

2.  If  it  be  conceded  that  there  was  a  First 
Cause  which  created  matter,  force,  and  motion, 
and  subjected  them  to  rigorous  obedience  of 
definite  laws;  and  also  established,  as  far  as 
the  human  race  is  concerned,  moral  laws  for 
its  governance ;  and  if  such  First  Cause  could 
not  have  ordained  the  complex  laws  of  matter 
and  motion  without  itself  understanding  their 
nature,  or  have  formulated  commandments  for 
morality  without   itself    possessing    the   moral 

[  142  ] 


Immortality  of  the  Soul 

sense,  then  it  follows  immediately  that  such 
First  Cause  must  have  been  possessed  of  both 
a  mental  and  a  moral  nature.  But  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  such  First  Cause  which  made  all 
the  millions  of  spheres  revolving  in  space,  and 
implanted  in  the  human  soul  the  innate  prin- 
ciples of  charity,  love,  truth,  and  virtue,  etc., 
was  formed  of  bodily  parts  —  of  bone,  flesh, 
and  nerve  —  subject  to  the  laws  of  gravitation 
and  chemical  affinities,  or  its  morality  was  as 
imperfect  as  that  of  man.  Therefore  the  human 
reason  is  forced  to  this  conclusion  that  Mental- 
ity and  Morality  can  exist  independently  of  a 
material  body  similar  to  that  possessed  by  man, 
and  the  Immortality  of  the  Mind  and  Soul  is 
consequently  not  disproved  by  the  apparent 
cessation  of  vital  functions  on  the  death  of  the 
body. 

3.  All  the  phenomena  of  nature  stand  for 
truth.  The  laws  which  govern  the  physical 
world  never  deceive.  The  rules  for  moral  con- 
duct are  as  uncompromising  as  the  sternest 
natural  laws.  If  the  nature  of  a  being  may 
be  judged  by  its  works,  one  of  the  distinguish- 
ing characteristics  of  the  great  Author  of  the 
Cosmos  is  Truth.  Nowhere  is  there  deception. 
To  this  statement  there  is  no  exception.  Sin  is 
never  confounded  by  the  soul  with  righteous- 
ness ;  evil  is  never  believed  to  be  virtue.  The 
processes  of  the  sane  mind  in  its  discrimination 

[143] 


Agreement  of  Evolutioh  and  Christianity 

between  right  and  wrong  are  as  certain  as  the 
laws  of  physics.  When  therefore  there  is  every- 
where, among  all  peoples  an  innate,  instinctive 
belief  in  the  immortality  of  its  spiritual  nature, 
a  strong  probability  by  analogy  is  created  that 
such  belief  represents  the  truth. 


[144] 


REWARD   AND   PUNISHMENT 

AVERY  prominent  and  unmistakable  prin- 
ciple of  the  Christian  Religion  is  the 
unqualified  doctrine  that  reward  will  wait  upon 
faith  in  Christ  and  effort  at  righteousness,  and 
punishment  will  be  the  portion  of  the  ungodly, 
and  these  consequences  will  follow  the  soul 
after  death. 

It  is  a  natural  characteristic  of  man  to  seek 
his  own  well-being.  Every  part  of  him  has 
needs  —  his  body,  his  mind,  his  soul.  He  is 
in  constant  realization  of  ever-pressing  wants; 
he  is  always  conscious  of  his  inability  to  supply 
them  fully  —  more  than  that,  even  partial  sup- 
ply would  fail  if  serious  effort  was  intermitted. 
These  demands  are  not  confined  to  necessities. 
His  mind  in  its  activities  soon  changes  a  luxury 
into  a  want,  so  that  the  more  he  possesses  the 
more  he  desires.  Desire  is  always  an  advance 
myth  beckoning  him  on;  and  he  toils,  he 
schemes,  he  frets,  he  oftentimes  consumes  his 
life  in  seeking  to  accomplish  a  state  of  falsely 
supposed  betterment. 

Correlative  to  these  yearnings  for  reward  is 
the  fear  of  punishment.  Punishment  is  not 
[  145  ] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

only  a  denial  of  a  coveted  blessing,  but  an 
infliction  of  some  appreciable  pain.  Men  may 
in  their  supineness  endure  to  a  limited  extent 
absence  of  gratification,  —  they  often  do  forego 
pleasure  from  indolence,  —  but  none  fail  to  es- 
cape punishment  if  they  can.  So,  when  the 
multitude  is  considered,  threatened  punishment 
is  more  conducive  to  good  conduct  than  prom- 
ised reward. 

In  a  broad  generalization  the  whole  scheme 
of  natural  evolution  is  based  on  reward  and 
punishment.  When  effort  is  made  to  accom- 
modate the  organism  to  its  environment  the 
reward  of  supply  of  necessities  is  realized,  and 
contentment  follows;  when  no  effort  is  made, 
for  example,  to  secure  food,  or  to  avoid  dangers, 
pain  as  a  punishment  quickly  supervenes.  Evo- 
lution, therefore,  holds  out  an  inducement  of  a 
double  character  for  effort.  The  absence  of 
effort  in  most  cases  does  not  result  in  simple 
self-denial  and  abstaining  from  enjoyment,  but 
in  positive  pain;  but  if  effort  is  made,  enjoy- 
ment follows  as  a  decided  reward.  So  effort 
is  doubly  rewarded.  Organized  society  is  based 
on  the  same  evolutionary  principle.  Rewards 
wait  quickly  on  brave  and  noble  deeds  done  for 
the  State.  Every  community  honors  the  hero 
of  successful  battle,  and  elevates  to  the  highest 
posts  of  influence  its  public  servants.  The 
vicious   and    depraved    are   punished  with  im- 

[146] 


Reward  and  Punishment 

prisonment  or  made  to  give  their  lives  for  their 
crimes.  There  is  no  exception  to  this  general 
rule.  What  pandemoniums  the  crowded  cities 
of  the  world  would  be  if  there  was  no  punish- 
ment for  crime?  Civilization  would  halt,  and 
in  a  few  generations,  depopulation  and  barbar- 
ism would  result. 

Soul  evolution  is  founded  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple. From  the  delivery  of  the  Second  Com- 
mandment to  Moses  on  Mount  Sinai  down 
through  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament,  pun- 
ishment is  declared  to  be  the  portion  of  the 
ungodly — punishment  not  only  in  this  life  as 
the  natural  result  of  bad  conduct,  but  punish- 
ment of  the  soul  in  the  life  beyond  the  grave. 
This  is  the  dreadful  sentence  of  Divine  Law, 
and  when  appreciated  fully  is  proportionally  to 
its  length  and  its  character  just  so  much  more 
powerfully  deterrent  to  the  commission  of  sin. 

The  justice  of  God  cannot  be  impeached 
because  He  has  established  punishment  for  evil 
conduct.  On  the  contrary,  if  He  had  not 
ordered  it  to  follow  sin,  His  wisdom  might  well 
be  assailed.  He  has  made  man  with  free  will ; 
He  has  intended  that  the  human  race  with  all 
the  balance  of  creation  should  evolve  into 
higher  states ;  He  has  endowed  it  with  a  soul 
and  immortality;  for  Him  under  such  circum- 
stances to  allow  vice  —  which  is  the  parent  of 
degeneracy  —  to  go  unpunished  would  be  an 
[  147  ] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

encouragement  for  its  indulgence,  and  one  of 
the  most  powerful  aids  for  soul  evolution  would 
be  wanting,  and  man  consequently  would  fail  to 
make  efforts  to  improve.  In  a  purely  rational 
consideration  of  the  subject,  it  would  seem, 
therefore,  God  was  under  the  necessity  of  or- 
daining that  punishment  should  in  the  future 
existence  of  the  soul  be  the  result  of  sin  in  this 
life.  Further,  by  analogy  punishment  must 
follow  vice.  It  does  on  this  earth  of  its  own 
effect.  If  the  soul  exists  after  death,  is  it  rea- 
sonable to  suppose  that  by  the  death  of  the 
body  it  changes  its  characteristics?  On  the 
contrary,  every  natural  analogy  would  lead  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  holds  to  its  previous 
methods.  A  contemner  of  God  will  be  a  con- 
temner still ;  a  vicious  heart  towards  fellow-men 
will  entertain  the  same  sentiments.  How  then 
in  a  strictly  human  view  of  the  subject  could 
such  a  creature  come  into  the  presence  of  an  all 
Holy  God  ?  Of  necessity  he  must  be  banished 
from  the  sight  of  Righteousness ;  of  necessity 
he  would  banish  himself,  like  the  wicked  in  this 
life  shun  the  companionship  of  the  virtuous. 

The  reverse  agency  applies  to  rewards. 
More  than  the  applause  of  grateful  fellow-citi- 
zens, or  bronze  statue,  is  the  portion  of  those 
who  die  in  the  Lord.  A  vista,  extending  into 
the  infinite  future  of  eternal  happiness  and  of 
proximity  to  God,  is  offered  to  the  vision  of  the 

[148] 


Reward  and  Punishment 

soul  for  faith  and  good  works.  What  a  grand 
scheme  for  soul  evolution  !  Exactly  analogous 
to  natural  evolution.  If  this  world  is  the  result 
of  intelligent  design  by  an  all-wise  Creator,  then 
the  agreement  of  soul  evolution  to  natural  evo- 
lution establishes  a  strong  probability  in  favor 
of  the  verity  of  the  former. 


[149] 


FREE   WILL 

NOTWITHSTANDING  the  fore-knowl- 
edge of  God,  the  Christian  Religion 
teaches  in  the  most  unequivocal  manner  the 
possession  of  Free  Will  by  humanity.  How 
these  two  apparently  contradictory  states  can 
co-exist  has  been  much  discussed  by  theo- 
logians, and  no  full  reconcilement  has  been 
made  of  the  perplexity.  The  case,  however,  is 
not  different  from  any  other  metaphysical  in- 
quiry, except  the  consciousness  that  we  exist; 
or  in  the  schoolmen's  words,  the  recognition  by 
each  individual  of  the  "  ego."  As  an  instance 
of  metaphysical  indecision  in  such  matters, 
philosophers  and  thinkers  have  divided  in 
opinion  and  waged  intellectual  warfare  for  cen- 
turies as  to  whether  we  perceive  matter  at  all ; 
some  contending  that  what  we  see  and  hear 
and  feel  are  our  own  sensations  and  not  things 
themselves,  and  therefore  that  there  is  no  cer- 
tainty as  to  the  external  world.  On  a  survey  of 
the  phenomena  of  nature  it  may  be  stated 
broadly  there  is  mystery  in  all  things  where 
the  intellect  seeks  to  unravel  Cause ;  and  con- 
sequently to  believe  that  it  is  within  the  power 

[150] 


Free  Will 

of  God  to  know  the  future ;  to  know  how  each 
individual  will  act,  though  perfectly  free  to 
pursue  one  course  or  another,  is  no  more  an 
unsolvable  problem  than  every  other  situation 
which  surrounds  us  on  all  sides  at  every  mo- 
ment of  our  lives. 

If  a  study  of  nature  teaches  one  lesson  more 
than  another,  it  is  God's  scheme  of  creation  is 
development  by  individual  effort.  The  fossil- 
iferous  strata  of  the  earth  offer  the  most  certain 
testimony  that  Hfe  has,  in  the  main,  advanced 
by  effort  from  simpler  forms  to  those  of  more 
complex  structure  and  function.  The  vast  im- 
provement, accomplished  in  the  short  Hfetime 
of  each  man  by  appropriate  physical  and  mental 
exertions,  demonstrates  how  effort  is  the  agency 
by  which  all  human  growth  is  effected.  Those 
organisms  making  proper  efforts  ascend  in  the 
scale  of  life,  while  those  which  fail  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  this  stern  law  do  not.  For  this 
law  to  be  just  wherein  each  is  the  architect  of 
his  own  fortune,  Free  Will  must  exist. 

To  be  thoroughly  persuaded  that  success  or 
failure  depends  on  self —  on  individual  efforts 
—  is  a  strong  motive  to  action.  Each  organism 
holds  the  key ;  it  has  but  to  search  for  the  lock 
which  will  open  the  blessings  of  this  life  to  it. 
The  Christian  doctrine  of  Free  Will  as  to  the 
physical,  mental,  and  moral  life  of  man  is  em- 
inently conducive  to  effort.     No  Mohammedan 

[151] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

fatalism  cramps  energy;  no  superstitious  in- 
cantations or  orgies  constrain  the  effect  of 
natural  laws  evoked  by  endeavor;  but  all  of 
the  temporal  good  things  of  life  and  the  grace 
of  God  are  as  free  as  air,  as  light,  awaiting  only 
the  effort  to  make  them  one's  own. 

Free  Will  is  God's  justification  for  the  success 
or  failure  of  every  creature.  Each  class  of  or- 
ganisms, and  each  individual  of  each  class,  are 
enjoying  the  blessings  or  discomforts  caused  by 
the  efforts  of  either  their  ancestors  or  them- 
selves. They  all  started  from  the  same  plane. 
Some  have  adapted  themselves  more  perfectly 
to  their  environments  than  others.  Some  have 
advanced  in  the  scale  of  life  —  others  have  made 
less  progress  —  others  again  have  even  become 
extinct.  None  can  complain.  Failure  is  their 
own  work,  success  their  own  due.  In  the 
great  contest  of  life,  where  all  classes  of  organ- 
isms should  have  an  equal  chance,  a  special 
protectorate  of  one  would  of  necessity  operate 
as  a  detriment  to  others.  The  field  has  been 
free,  the  intelligently  industrious  have  been  the 
winners.  How  fair  this  all  is!  How  compat- 
ible with  pure  abstract  justice ! 

Another  lesson  to  be  learned  is  the  impor- 
tance of  effort  by  each  individual  as  affecting 
the  fortunes  of  his  progeny.  Every  act  of  every 
creature  of  all  the  multitudinous  orders,  families, 
species,  and  varieties  of  life  inhabiting  the  earth, 

[152] 


Free  Will 

is  not  only  making  history,  but  character,  for  its 
offspring;  and  whether  the  latter  advance  or 
retrograde  depends  largely  on  the  efforts  of  its 
ancestors.  It  has  the  free  will  to  act  or  not. 
Its  choice  is  free.  The  justice  of  the  Second 
Commandment,  wherein  it  is  said  God  will  visit 
the  sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  to 
the  third  and  fourth  generations,  is  most  clearly 
demonstrated  when  the  evolutionary  develop- 
ment of  organism  is  thus  interpreted.  If  a 
man  violates  a  law,  and  by  so  doing  injures 
the  functions  of  his  body  or  mind,  evolution 
often  transmits  these  evil  effects  to  his  progeny ; 
so  conversely,  if  in  his  free  will  he  makes  efforts 
to  live  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  his  exist- 
ence and  develops  functions  and  structure  ad- 
vantageous to  himself,  these  improvements  will 
also  be  inherited  by  his  offspring.  For  the  Sec- 
ond Commandment  not  to  have  been  the  law, 
organism  would  have  lacked  the  power  of  inherit- 
ance and  all  the  development  of  animal  and  men- 
tal life  abounding  on  the  globe  at  this  time  would 
never  have  materialized.  In  other  words,  should 
evil  be  protected  against  itself,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence no  attainment  of  higher  Hfe  be  made? 
Should  the  wise  scheme  which  has  brought  to 
the  blossom  our  beautiful  world  and  evolved 
the  God-like  animal  —  man  —  have  been  sacri- 
ficed in  order  that  sin  might  be  spared  the  legit- 
imate consequences  of  its  own  conduct?     Moses 

[153] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

was  an  evolutionist  in  the  narration  of  the  Crea- 
tion. He  was  no  less  an  evolutionist  when  he 
announced  as  God's  servant  one  of  its  funda- 
mental laws  in  the  Second  Commandment, 
namely,  the  transmission  of  acquired  charac- 
teristics to  progeny. 

Every  soul  has  the  innate  feeling  that  there 
is  reverence  due  to  some  being,  or  essence,  or 
principle  outside  of  itself  It  may  deny  the 
God  revealed  by  Moses,  but  in  His  place  it 
sets  up  either  the  laws  of  nature,  or  pantheism, 
or  idolatrous  practices,  or  some  other  figment 
beyond  itself,  which  more  or  less  clearly  it 
deifies.  There  is  no  escape  froip  an  instinctive 
acknowledgment  of  man's  feebleness  in  the  pres- 
ence of  natural  forces ;  no  capacity  to  ignore 
deity ;  but  free  will  exists  to  worship  a  brazen 
calf,  the  laws  of  physics,  or  the  Christians'  God. 
Recognition  of  the  Godhead  in  one  form  or 
another  is  a  consequence  of  soul  existence. 

Likewise  in  reference  to  man's  duty  to  his 
fellows.  The  soul  instinctively  perceives  man- 
kind has  a  common  origin;  that  more  or  less 
remotely  men  are  akin;  and  independently  of 
all  utilitarian  consideration  it  is  their  duty  to 
love  one  another.  This  is  a  great  constraining 
principle,  man  has  no  power  to  flee  from.  It 
dominates  his  nature.  And  yet  he  has,  subject 
to  this  innate  consciousness,  the  ability  to  re- 

[154] 


Free  Will 

gard  or  disregard  its  teachings  in  particular 
instances  and  either  hand  the  cup  of  cold  water 
to  the  thirsty  under  the  influence  of  a  common 
brotherhood,  or  to  murder  his  victim  in  dis- 
regard of  the  dictates  of  his  conscience. 


[iSS] 


FAITH 

NO  man  has  seen  God.  The  skeptic  can- 
not subdue  his  self-conceit  and  declares 
God  should  manifest  Himself  to  his  senses.  He 
demands  to  know  more  of  God  than  he  knows 
of  the  ground  on  which  his  feet  tread.  The 
most  learned  physicist  has  not  discovered  what 
matter  is.  Faraday  was  unable  to  describe  the 
nature  of  electricity,  and  advanced  electricians 
of  the  present  day  are  giving  out  about  every 
five  years  new  theories  of  this  wonderful  natural 
phenomenon;  and  yet  the  atheist,  if  there  is 
really  one,  cries  out,  "  Why  does  your  God  not 
reveal  Himself  to  man?"  It  is  answered,  "  He 
has  revealed  Himself  as  far  as  the  law  of  spirit- 
ual evolution  allows.  Deism  exists  in  your 
heart  —  in  the  soul  of  every  man  —  in  the  soul 
of  that  profound  agnostic,  Herbert  Spencer  — 
not  defined  by  a  concrete  essence,  but  none  the 
less  truly  in  the  vague  and  hazy  consciousness 
of  a  '  First  Cause.'  " 

There  is  merit  in  believing  in  God.  To  real- 
ize His  existence  somewhat  as  if  we  had  seen 
Him  face  to  face  requires  a  very  persistent 
training   of  the    soul  —  a   metaphysical   intro- 

[156] 


Faith 

spection.  We  learn  to  apprehend  God  by  con- 
templating His  works  —  His  omnipotence  by 
viewing  the  nightly  display  of  the  stars;  His 
omnipresence,  by  observing  the  harmonious 
workings  of  the  laws  of  matter  and  of  force ; 
His  omniscience,  by  the  consciousness  that  He 
knows  the  secrets  of  our  hearts;  His  love,  by 
this  beautiful  world  He  has  evolved  for  us  to 
live  in.  There  is  no  part  of  the  universe,  but 
God  has  revealed  Himself  somewhat  in  it,  to 
those  who  seek  Him ;  and  with  evolutionary 
exactitude  He  reveals  Himself  the  more  to 
those  who  the  more  earnestly  wish  to  know 
Him. 

There  could  be  no  growth  in  the  knowledge 
of  God  if  He  had  made  Himself  as  plain  to  the 
mind  as  the  trees  are  to  the  vision.  When  a 
thing  is  known  fully  there  is  nothing  to  stimu- 
late inquiry  —  it  becomes  commonplace  and 
uninteresting.  Photographers  no  longer  experi- 
ment to  ascertain  if  iodide  and  bromide  of  silver 
are  sensitive  to  light.  This  is  fully  understood, 
but  it  was  once  the  subject  of  unwearied  investi- 
gation. Their  efforts  are  now  directed  to  the 
problem  of  photographing  the  colors  of  the 
spectrum.  If  this  should  be  accomphshed,  it 
would  lose  much  of  its  interest  and  some  other 
unattained  knowledge,  such  as  the  photography 
of  objects  invisible  to  the  human  eye  would 
beckon  on  the  insatiable  greed  of  the  intellect 

[157] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

of  man.  The  witchery  of  mystery  is  fascinating. 
It  stimulates  contemplation  of  the  Deity,  and 
thought  of  God  elevates  the  soul. 

On  lines  precisely  similar  to  the  revelation 
of  Himself  has  God  made  known  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  If  the  Deity  has  left  ground  for 
speculation  as  to  His  own  nature,  would  it  not 
have  been  extraordinary  for  Him  to  have  en- 
forced conviction  in  regard  to  the  Messiahship? 
As  to  His  own  nature  He  has  revealed  Himself 
in  every  material  object,  in  every  law  of  the 
universe,  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  the  souls  of 
men  adequately  for  soul  evolution.  In  regard 
to  His  Son  the  same  method  has  been  pursued. 
He  appeared  on  the  theatre  of  the  world  at  a 
most  opportune  period  for  human  evolution. 
A  minute  history  of  His  life,  of  His  miracles 
attesting  His  divinity,  of  His  death  and  resur- 
rection and  ascension  has  been  singularly  pre- 
served for  the  use  of  men ;  also  a  full  account 
of  the  principles  He  taught.  There  has  been 
vouchsafed  to  us  the  knowledge  that  soon  after 
His  death  —  soon  is  repeated  because  in  that 
age  the  printing  press  was  unknown,  and  com- 
munication between  peoples  slow,  difficult,  and 
infrequent  —  His  religion  largely  supplanted 
heathenism.  More  extraordinary  yet,  in  a  world 
where  everything  is  under  the  reign  of  law —  of 
Evolution  —  established  by  a  beneficent  Being, 
we  have  had  the  most  surprising  evolutionary  de- 

[158] 


Faith 

velopment,  physically,  mentally,  and  spiritually, 
of  man,  unmistakably  and  proximately  attribut- 
able to  the  doctrines  of  peace  and  good-will 
He  taught.  These  in  general  terms  are  briefly 
some  of  the  evidence  of  the  verity  of  Christ, 
adequate  in  every  particular  on  which  to  found 
a  reasonable  faith.  The  soul  is  the  soil,  and 
these  facts  the  seed.  If  the  ground  is  culti- 
vated as  the  prudent  husbandman  does  his 
fields,  and  the  weeds  are  turned  under  by  the 
plough,  the  revelation  of  Christ  is  ample  to  bring 
forth  the  most  abundant  harvest  —  the  deepest, 
sweetest,  most  consoling  faith  and  moral  con- 
duct. 

Faith  is  inconsistent  with  absolute  knowledge. 
A  thing  known,  as  said  before,  is  no  longer 
investigated  —  but  faith  stimulates  contempla- 
tion; and  contemplation  eventuates  in  either 
mental  or  soul  evolution.  To  illustrate  the 
thought,  take  one  example. 

Fortunately  for  soul  evolution  there  has  been 
no  authentic  account  of  the  personal  appearance 
of  the  Saviour.  If  the  world  had  been  favored 
with  a  true  portrait  of  His  features.  His  bearing 
and  general  manner,  He  would  be  as  common- 
place to  us  as  Napoleon  or  Washington.  This 
extraordinary  absence  of  all  personal  descrip- 
tion of  our  Lord  is  in  exact  accord  with  all 
other  revelation.  Just  enough  has  been  un- 
folded to  increase  the  desire  for  further  knowl- 
[159] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

edge ;  enough  to  call  for  the  exercise  of  the 
highest  development  of  faith,  and  therefore 
of  the  imagination.  Imagination  is  a  meta- 
physical reality,  powerfully  affecting  the  will 
power,  and  the  will  controls  the  acts. 

As  it  is,  the  spirit  is  constantly  seeking  to 
picture  to  itself  the  divine  lineaments  of  our 
Lord.  Michael  Angelo,  Raphael,  and  the  whole 
line  of  the  most  gifted  artists  of  the  past  and 
present,  have  looked  into  their  souls  for  the 
Christ  and  endeavored  on  canvas  and  in  marble 
to  symboHze  their  most  sublime  conceptions. 
Not  only  these,  but  every  heart  throughout 
Christendom  that  raises  itself  ideally  in  suppli- 
cation to  His  feet,  clothes  His  person  with  the 
most  beautiful  embodiment  it  can  figure,  thus 
elevating  by  effort,  by  the  process  of  evolution, 
the  individual  soul  to  a  higher  sphere. 

While  no  man  knows  whether  the  Saviour's 
skin  was  bronzed  or  fair  as  woman's ;  whether 
auburn  locks  surrounded  His  brow,  or  dark 
masses  of  hair  rested  on  his  shoulders;  if  a 
straight  Greek  or  modern  Hebrew  nose  domi- 
nated His  countenance ;  or  whether  He  grew 
tall  among  men  or  was  robust ;  but  this  I  know 
as  plainly  as  if  I  was  looking  at  His  person  at 
this  moment  —  for  the  spirit  then  as  now  illumi- 
nated all  the  features  of  the  face,  every  movement 
of  the  body,  the  whole  being,  with  its  own  es- 
sence —  that  the  walk  of  Jesus  was  neither 
[i6o] 


Faith 

hurried  with  nervous  excitement  nor  slow  with 
sluggishness.  A  sweet  but  composedly  sad 
expression  at  all  times  rested  on  the  Hnes  of 
His  mouth  —  its  sweetness,  expressive  of  His 
sympathy  and  love  for  humanity  —  its  sadness, 
of  His  inexpressible  grief  for  man's  sins.  There 
was  no  moroseness  in  His  lonely  moments ;  no 
complaint  when  grieved  the  most;  but  a  calm 
benignity  dominated  every  emotion  in  even  His 
last  hours.  I  know  not  whether  His  eyes  were 
dark  or  blue  or  gray,  but  this  I  know,  the  living 
spirit  of  the  man  beamed  from  them  with  ineffa- 
ble tenderness,  and  the  light  of  love  lit  them  as 
a  lantern  with  kindly  rays.  He  was  meek  but 
not  cringing,  for  Christ  was  a  moral  hero.  Did 
He  not  fearlessly  pronounce  the  judgments  of 
the  law  on  the  chief  men  of  His  nation  with  the 
words,  "  Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
hypocrites"?  No  mortal  man  has  equalled 
Him  in  calm  courage  —  none  has  so  deliber- 
ately walked  to  martyrdom  as  Jesus.  When 
I  describe  Him  to  my  soul  as  a  preacher,  repose 
and  earnestness  seem  to  have  emanated  from 
every  movement  of  His  body —  from  His  whole 
being —  exercising  even  before  He  spoke  a  pro- 
found influence  —  that  influence  which  great 
men  exert  over  the  weaker ;  that  reserve  power 
which  conquers  all  obstacles,  which  impels 
smaller  souls  to  put  their  trust  in  the  strong.  His 
gestures  neither  soared  with  undue  frequency, 
[  i6i  ] 


Agreement  of  EvoluticJn  and  Christianity 

nor  were  impassive  with  coldness,  but  dignified, 
impressive,  and  graceful.  His  voice  was  musi- 
cal, and  the  modulation  of  His  words  various 
and  exquisite ;  for  I  have  ever  noticed  a  fine 
delivery  of  speech  is  accompanied  with  mental 
capacity.  I  see  the  multitude  hanging  on  His 
words,  some  weeping,  many  following  Him  from 
place  to  place,  eager  to  hear  more  of  eternal 
salvation  spoken  in  such  stirring  and  solemn 
tones.  And  notwithstanding  their  homage,  I 
see  this  Man,  easily  recognized  as  Master  of 
them  all  and  by  them  all,  not  puffed  up  with 
self-approbation,  but  calm  and  earnest  and  lowly. 

The  contemplation  of  such  things,  the  effort 
to  bring  the  person  of  the  Saviour  visibly  to 
the  spirit  and  thus  elevate  it,  is  as  much  a  mat- 
ter of  soul  evolution  as  the  seeking  of  a  favorable 
habitat  is  among  animals  and  plants. 

This  brief  illustration  of  the  effort  to  picture 
some  of  the  characteristics  of  Jesus  shows  how 
contemplation  —  delightful  and  ennobling  con- 
templation —  would  be  extinguished  if  knowl- 
edge had  been  allowed  to  usurp  the  place  of 
faith,  and  soul  evolution  thus  far  be  rendered 
impossible. 


[162] 


GOOD  WORKS 

THE  Christian  Religion  teaches  not  only 
the  necessity  for  Faith  but  the  perform- 
ance of  Good  Works.  By  Good  Works  is 
meant  to  love  God,  and  to  love  one's  neighbors 
because  God  has  commanded  it.  Faith  and 
Good  Works  are  inseparably  connected  and 
reciprocally  the  effect  of  the  other.  Faith  in 
itself  begets  Good  Works.  To  believe,  to 
thoroughly  believe,  God  is  the  Lord  and  Father 
of  us  all,  that  Jesus  Christ  by  His  death  made 
atonement  for  our  sins,  that  this  Godhead  has 
enjoined  abstinence  from  sin,  and  righteous 
conduct,  such  a  faith  of  its  own  force  will  impel 
the  believer  to  Good  Works.  So,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  individual  who  devotes  his  best  efforts 
to  loving  God  and  obeying  the  precepts  taught 
by  the  Saviour,  and  because  they  were  taught 
by  Him,  must  of  necessity  have  Faith  in  the 
Deity  he  strives  to  obey.  Consequently  there 
can  be  no  Christianity  without  Good  Works. 
But  work  is  effort,  and -effort  as  we  have  fre- 
quently seen  is  the  proximate  cause  of  Evolu- 
tion. In  requiring,  therefore.  Good  Works,  the 
Christian  ReHgion  is  as  absolutely  and  essen- 
tially evolutionary  as  the  law  of  natural  selection. 

[163] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

By  effort  the  organism  becomes  more  complex 
in  function  and  structure ;  by  effort  the  human 
soul  attains  more  perfectness. 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  system  better 
adapted  for  spiritual  development  than  Chris- 
tianity. Effort  is  necessary  to  attain  to  a  satis- 
factory apprehension  of  God,  faith  in  Christ, 
and  the  performance  of  Good  Works.  There  is 
no  free  gift  of  perfected  spirituality.  It  is  only- 
acquired  after  the  abasement  of  intellectual  con- 
ceit, by  the  submission  of  a  rebellious  will,  by 
the  denial  of  vicious  pleasures  made  alluring  by 
the  worldly,  by  the  loving  of  the  brother  man. 
In  all  this  system  for  the  creation  of  righteous- 
ness there  is  not  one  flaw  in  its  code,  not  one 
sin  is  tolerated  or  unpunished.  If  this  immacu- 
lateness  be  admitted,  and  no  atheist  even  will 
deny  the  morality  of  Christianity,  then  if  the 
moral  nature  of  man  is  the  subject  of  Divine 
solicitude  as  much  as  his  physical  development, 
and  it  must  be  so,  for  physical  development 
broadly  considered  can  only  take  place  propor- 
tionally with  moral  development,  it  follows  that 
Christianity,  aiding  in  the  most  efficient  manner 
the  evolution  of  man,  is  by  analogy  as  much  the 
institution  of  the  Creator  as  the  laws  of  physical 
evolution. 

The  effects  of  Good  Works  wrought  under 
the   influence   of   Christianity    are   marvellous. 

[164] 


Good  Works 

On  a  previous  page,  the  writer  has  called  at- 
tention to  the  results  of  this  Religion,  showing 
how  men  must  have  peace  and  security  of  life 
to  enable  them  to  devote  their  minds  to  the 
arts  and  sciences,  and  thereby  make  the  best 
use  of  the  laws  of  nature ;  how  in  consequence 
of  the  teachings  of  the  "  Prince  of  Peace  "  wars 
and  the  butchery  of  wars  have  comparatively 
ceased  in  the  present  era ;  how  the  most  extra- 
ordinary advance  has  been  made  along  all  the 
hues  of  physical,  mental,  and  moral  develop- 
ment until  schools  and  hospitals  and  churches 
fill  nearly  all  Christian — but  only  Christian  — 
lands,  and  Hfe,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness  are  the  birthright  of  every  man. 

Unfriendly  readers  may  answer  this  picture  is 
a  glittering  generality  and  we  dispute  its  truth- 
fulness. Then  let  there  be  cited  one  instance, 
and  a  most  important  one,  because  it  affects  the 
male  youth  of  our  country,  with  facts  taken 
from  the  official  report  showing  what  Chris- 
tianity is  doing  for  soul  evolution  in  that 
case.  The  number  of  well-established  Young 
Men's  Christian  Associations  of  North  Amer- 
ica in  May,  1903,  was  1,736,  with  a  member- 
ship of  350,455,  owning  establishments  valued 
at  $28,827,886.  The  associations  have  739 
reading-rooms  and  expend  annually  $42,100 
for  periodicals.  They  have  699  libraries  with 
544,450  volumes.     Courses    in    education    are 

[165] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity- 
given  by  913,  to  young  men  and  boys.  Last 
year  70,286  religious  meetings  were  held,  at 
which  there  was  an  attendance  of  3,954,207. 
The  number  of  men  and  boys  enrolled  in 
definite  Bible  classes  was  31,300. 

Think  of  the  benignant  effect  this  one  insti- 
tution, and  of  comparatively  recent  origin,  is 
having  on  soul  evolution  !  How  it  is  purifying 
the  morals  of  every  youth  of  our  land  who 
comes  within  its  blessed  influence.  Can  a  thorn 
tree  bear  such  figs  —  a  thistle  such  roses  —  a 
dive  be  the  nursery  of  pure  minds  in  sound 
bodies? 

Following  the  same  line  of  thought  an  ex- 
amination of  the  Directory  of  the  City  of 
Chicago  for  1903  will  show  that  there  are  in 
that  city  approximately  nine  hundred  churches 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  Christianity.  There 
are  also  in  that  book  the  names  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  schools,  nineteen  asylums,  four- 
teen hospitals,  and  five  hundred  and  ninety-two 
religious  societies,  all  bearing  as  their  designa- 
tion some  name  intimately  connected  with  the 
life  of  Christ. 

If  it  be  estimated  that  each  church  has  one 
religious  society,  and  they  have  between  them 
on  an  average  an  active  membership  of  four 
hundred  persons,  it  is  plain  that  some  three 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  people  in  that  city 
are  devoting  themselves  more  or  less  to  the  en- 

[166] 


Good  Works 

nobling  worship  of  God,  to  helping  those  un- 
able to  help  themselves,  to  teaching  correct 
and  temperate  living,  to  the  practising  of  virtue, 
to  cultivating  the  intellect,  to  the  advancement 
of  honesty  and  brotherly  love,  in  a  word  to  the 
development  of  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
evolution  of  themselves  and  their  fellow-men. 

The  writer  has  examined  in  vain  this  direc- 
tory to  find  the  name  of  a  single  society,  organi- 
zation, or  association  whose  title  would  indicate 
that  it  was  composed  of  infidels  having  for  its 
object  the  evolution  of  the  human  race.  There 
is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  directories  of 
New  York,^  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
Washington,  St.  Louis,  San  Francisco,  and  other 
cities  of  the  United  States,  will  present  any  sub- 
stantial difference  from  that  of  Chicago. 

This  showing,  if  it  be  true,  and  the  directory 
can  be  easily  consulted,  is  a  terrible  indictment 
of  infidelity.  The  accusation  is  that  there  is  no 
charity,  no  brotherly  love,  no  desire  on  the  part 
of  infidels  to  better  humanity;  that  it  neither 
teaches  nor  practises  the  physical,  mental,  or 
moral  advancement  of  mankind  ;  that  it  stands 
for  degeneracy;  and  that  its  legitimate  result 
is  retrograde  evolution. 

It  would  seem  that  on  this  showing  the  honest 
agnostic  would  of  his  own  accord  pause  and 

1  For  a  similar  analysis  of  New  York  City  Directory,  see 
"  The  Testimony  of  Reason." 

[167] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity- 
ask  himself  the  question,  Can  I  be  right  in  my 
infidelity?  If  infidelity  is  practically  synony- 
mous with  degeneracy,  is  it  not  contradicted  by 
the  progressive  evolution  of  all  nature  in  which 
I  am  a  firm  believer?  The  position  of  the 
agnostic  scientist  is  therefore  of  the  most  in- 
conceivable contradiction.  As  a  rule  such  men 
are  of  more  than  ordinary  knowledge  and  power 
of  analysis.  They  are  firm  believers  in  Evolu- 
tion. They  must  know  that  morality  and  Good 
Works  contribute  to  longevity,  to  physical  de- 
velopment, to  peace  of  mind,  and  thereby  to 
the  leisure  to  investigate  and  the  disposition  to 
solve  and  utilize  the  natural  forces.  In  fine, 
that  evolution  is  largely  dependent  on  brotherly 
love,  and  the  highest  brotherly  love  is  that  in- 
spired by  obedience  to  Divine  Command  as 
promulgated  by  Christianity;  and  yet,  they 
ignore  this  cause  of  evolution,  this  factor  which 
is  of  no  less  importance  in  the  high  development 
of  man  than  the  survival  of  the  fittest  to  live, 
and  substitute  nothing  in  its  place.  A  strange 
inconsistency  for  men  who  believe  in  the  Reign 
of  Law  in  a  world  where  every  law  has  an  intel- 
ligent and  sufficient  Cause. 

But  it  is  not  surprising  there  are  no  agnostic 
societies  for  the  propagation  of  virtue,  for  the 
founding  of  hospitals,  or  the  cultivation  of  Good 
Works,  because  there  is  no  cohesion  in  vice  or 
infidelity.  Criminals  will  unite  to  perpetrate  a 
[  168  ] 


Good  Works 

theft,  but  when  detection  overtakes  a  member 
and  he  can  escape  by  disclosing  the  plot,  he 
makes  confession  and  violates  his  compact  of 
secrecy.  The  infidel  never  rises  to  any  higher 
plane  than  a  balancing  of  gains  as  the  motive 
for  a  good  act,  and  as  this  balance  is  as  various 
as  the  different  minds  which  weigh  the  subject, 
owing  to  their  different  points  of  view  and  cir- 
cumstances, there  can  be  no  united  efforts,  no 
union  of  infidels  in  altruistic  acts. 

Christian  unity  is  unlike  all  this  shifting  of 
sands.  Throughout  all  Christendom  there  is 
but  one  chart,  one  common  platform,  one  high- 
est law  —  love  God  with  all  thy  heart  and  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself.  Is  it  wondrous,  then, 
that  such  countries  are  everywhere  filled  with 
churches,  with  societies  and  hospitals  and  col- 
leges bearing  Christian  names  and  embracing 
millions  of  souls  devoted  to  the  noblest  philan- 
thropy in  the  cause  of  Evolution? 

Enough.  A  volume  might  be  written  and 
hardly  adequately  emblazon  the  twice  blessed 
effects  of  Christianity  on  him  who  gives  and  on 
him  who  receives. 


[169] 


ATONEMENT  FOR  SIN 

IN  this  treatise  sin  is  understood  to  be  either 
a  wilful  violation  of  the  commandments  of 
God  or  an  omission  to  use  one's  best  efforts  to 
conform  to  such  commandments.  It  is  unneces- 
sary for  the  argument  to  discuss  the  original 
cause  of  sin ;  whether  it  came  by  man's  dis- 
obedience in  eating  the  forbidden  fruit  in  an 
actual  Eden,  or  whether  that  account  is  sym- 
bolical of  a  deeper  cause ;  which  it  may  be,  for 
it  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  much  of  the  Scrip- 
tures is  written  in  and  illustrated  by  a  figurative 
style,  and  often  with  poetic  license.  The  Saviour 
Himself  resorted  to  parables  most  frequently 
to  enforce  His  revelations  and  teachings.  But 
taking  the  world  as  we  find  it,  many  sins  to 
which  man  is  addicted  are  directly  attributable 
to  the  edict  that  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow  he 
should  earn  his  bread.  Rarely  does  man  find 
something  for  nothing.  For  the  most  part 
nature  is  such  a  reluctant  mistress  she  yields 
her  treasures  only  after  the  most  laborious  and 
persistent  toil,  and  in  such  scant  abundance 
and  of  such  perishable  quality  there  is  no  lay- 
ing up  of  stores  for  the  future.  The  muscles 
I  170] 


Atonement  for  Sin 

of  the  toiler  are  feeble ;  his  nerves  are  weak ; 
his  years  of  infancy  and  of  old  age  many ;  and 
his  period  of  active  work  not  adequate  to  ac- 
complish individually  great  things ;  moreover, 
disease,  injuries,  and  lassitude  are  ever  curtailing 
his  vigorous  days.  The  necessities  of  himself 
and  of  a  dependent  family  are  numerous,  and 
so  imaginative  are  their  minds  that  luxuries 
soon  take  on  the  garb  of  indispensable  require- 
ments. Every  inducement  of  nature,  his  love, 
his  desire  to  please  those  who  look  up  to  him, 
his  parental  instincts,  all  urge  him  to  supply 
these  wants.  He  is  oppressed  with  the  convic- 
tion he  cannot  successfully  earn  them,  and  that 
he  is  surrounded  by  fellow-men  in  sharp  com- 
petition with  himself  bent  on  seizing  what  he 
would  obtain.  The  opportunity  presents  itself 
to  appropriate  what  another  has  produced. 
His  desire  is  so  great  to  possess  it,  he  steals. 
With  this  crime  of  theft  is  always  associated 
falsehood  —  sometimes  arson  and  sometimes 
murder;  often  the  breaking  of  the  Sabbath, 
the  dishonoring  of  parents,  and  always  covet- 
ousness. 

Many  sins  may  thus  be  traced  to  a  covetous- 
ness  springing  out  of  the  parsimony  of  nature 
and  the  feebleness  of  man's  best  efforts  to  over- 
come the  reluctance  of  the  soil  to  yield  without 
exhausting  labor.  Men  everywhere  realize  they 
are  sinful.     This  condition  is  emphasized  when 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

they  find  themselves  in  a  state  of  civilization ; 
for  civilization  increases  wants,  and  wants  with- 
out effort  are  the  natural  parents  of  sin. 

There  comes  a  time  in  the  life  of  many  souls 
when  the  conviction  of  sin  plays  a  very  intense 
r6le.  The  soul  by  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God  sometimes  wakes  up  to  a  realiza- 
tion of  its  duty  to  its  Creator,  namely,  to  love 
Him  with  all  its  power,  and  to  love  its  neighbor 
as  itself.  It  appreciates  it  has  fallen  far  short 
of  the  performance  of  these  obligations.  It 
undergoes  a  regeneration,  modified,  it  is  true,  by 
the  physical  and  mental  characteristics  of  the 
individual,  but  a  regeneration  —  a  conversion  — 
the  most  prominent  quality  of  which  is  a  rec- 
ognition of  the  Holiness  and  Righteousness  of 
God  and  the  unworthiness  of  the  sinner  —  a 
conviction  that  the  soul  is  unfit  to  enter  into 
the  ineffable  Presence  of  its  Maker;  that  there 
is  a  certainty  of  punishment  for  misdeeds,  and 
an  impossibility  ever  to  acquire  by  its  own 
efforts  any  worthiness  sufficient  to  render  it 
pure  enough  to  approach  its  august  God. 

To  be  convinced  of  this  state  of  affairs  —  to 
be  permeated  with  these  thoughts  —  that  the 
soul  is  powerless  to  do  anything  to  render  it 
either  fit  to  enjoy  the  presence  of  its  Creator,  or 
to  escape  damnation,  despair  would  seize  it 
within  its  enervating  grasp,  effort  would  be  fore- 
gone, and  in  its  place  the  man  would  abandon 
[  172] 


Atonement  for  Sin 

himself  to  gratification  of  his  vicious  propensities 
under  the  behef  that  to-morrow  he  dies. 

Just  here  comes  in  the  evolutionary  doctrine 
of  the  Atonement  for  Sin  by  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  poor  soul  —  in  the  vivid  realiza- 
tion of  its  sin  and  unworthiness,  of  the  unutter- 
able perfection  of  its  God,  and  of  its  incapacity 
to  sanctify  itself  adequately  to  meet  His  Holiness 
—  catches,  as  a  drowning  man  to  a  floating  spar, 
rapturously,  sometimes  frantically,  to  the  Cross 
of  Christ  as  its  salvation,  and  for  the  balance  of 
life  with  varying  grasp  holds  on  to  it  as  the 
great  inspiring  cause  for  its  best  efforts  in  resist- 
ing sin  and  growing  in  soul  evolution. 


[173] 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

IT  is  not  important  for  the  argument  of  this 
treatise  to  discuss  the  conclusiveness  of 
the  Evidences  of  Christianity.  According  to 
the  theory  of  Evolution,  if  they  produced  cer- 
tain conviction  of  their  truths,  there  could  be 
no  spiritual  development  as  the  result  of  effort 
in  studying  and  testing  their  values.  The  fact 
that  men  have  an  opportunity  to  doubt,  and 
need  to  investigate,  gives  rise  to  a  spiritual 
growth  analogous  to  the  information  and  power 
gained  by  study  in  those  divisions  of  physics 
and  intellectual  matters,  the  knowledge  of  which 
is  still  incomplete. 

The  Deity,  however,  has  taken  care  that 
mankind  has  not  been  left  in  darkness  as  to 
the  facts  essential  to  stimulate  religious  contem- 
plation; but  only  so  much  light  has  been  shed 
on  the  subject  as  not  to  dispense  with  effort  to 
understand  His  Divinity  and  the  other  truths 
of  Christianity. 

How  different  the  scheme  of  God  is  from  that 
of  man !  The  writer  in  his  humanity  is  bring- 
ing forward  every  argument  and  collateral  fact 
he  knows  of  and  thinks  pertinent,  to  convince 

[  174  ] 


Evidences  of  Christianity 

the  reader  that  Christianity  is  as  evolutionary 
in  character  as  natural  selection  is  in  the  animal 
kingdom.  The  divine  method,  on  the  other 
hand,  compels  conviction  on  none,  and  while 
offerinof  evidences  cumulative  and  more  and 
more  convincing  to  those  who  study  them  with 
reverence,  yet  it  never  enforces  certainty  by  full 
knowledge.  To  have  gone  further  and  com- 
pelled belief  in  Himself  and  in  Christ  by  the 
most  indisputable  proofs ;  to  drive  men  by  su- 
perior force  as  the  shepherd  does  his  sheep  into 
the  fold,  would  prevent  soul  growth,  soul  evo- 
lution. Sheep  so  driven  and  protected  would 
never  evolve  the  capacity  to  escape  from  or 
defend  themselves  against  wolves. 

The  opportunity  should  not,  however,  be  lost 
to  mention  one  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity 
which  should  particularly  appeal  to  evolutionists. 
It  may  be  termed  **  The  Witness  of  Christian 
Civilization."  The  world  has  had  many  great 
religions  and  systems  of  philosophy,  and  each 
has  contained  valuable  moral  precepts.  In 
their  day  and  place  they  have  respectively 
moulded  the  civilization  of  races  to  an  extent 
beyond  any  other  causes.  Chinese  life  in  its 
highest  phases  is  the  incarnation  of  the  teach- 
ings of  Confucius.  These  are  based  on  a  utili- 
tarian morality  that  it  is  most  profitable  to  do 
right.  India  has  reached  all  that  Buddhism  can 
[175] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

develop  ;  which  consists  of  a  pantheistic  divinity 
wherein  the  highest  good  does  not  contemplate 
benevolence  by  the  individual,  but  absorption 
into  an  all-pervading  essence.  Persian  thought 
in  its  best  form  is  the  result  of  the  philosophy 
of  Zoroaster  —  a  philosophy  which  sanctifies 
evil  when  the  emergency  is  adequate.  The 
hieroglyphics  of  Egypt  and  the  frescoes  of 
Pompeii  tell  in  pictures  what  their  mythologies 
could  accomplish.  Even  the  Jew  may  be  cited 
as  the  product  of  Judaism,  and  the  Turk  is  the 
living  exponent  of  the  Koran.  So,  the  almost 
entire  absence  of  support  by  infidels,  agnostics, 
and  materialists  of  institutions  and  associations 
for  the  amelioration  or  advancement  of  human- 
ity is  proof  there  is  no  virtue  for  altruism  and 
brotherly  love  in  their  creeds. 

When  these  people,  numbering  millions,  are 
compared  with  those  reared  under  the  influence 
of  Christianity,  it  is  impossible  for  a  man  not 
unfriendly  to  Christ  to  believe  that  all  the  benig- 
nant fruitage  of  Christian  civilization  has  been 
the  result  of  falsehood  and  superstition  con- 
cocted by  a  lowly  Nazarene  and  a  few  ignorant 
fishermen  of  Galilee.  In  a  word,  where  cause 
and  effect  are  as  invariable  as  gravitation; 
where  the  results  of  fraud  are  failures,  and  sin 
is  death  to  any  enterprise ;  where  things  founded 
on  truth  alone  abide,  and  those  on  justice  are 
always   beneficent,   it   follows   as    a   legitimate 

[176] 


Evidences  of  Christianity 

deduction  from  this  rational  premise  that  the 
wonderful  civilization  of  Christendom  must  be 
a  consequence  of  truth,  as  contained  in  the 
Christian  Religion,  and  prepares  the  logical 
mind  to  give  more  than  ordinary  weight  and 
credence  to  its  supernatural  claims  and  evidences. 

Imagine  the  status  man  would  occupy  if  en- 
dowed with  a  positive  knowledge  of  God,  of 
Jesus  Christ  before  He  became  man,  of  His 
inconceivable  glory  at  this  moment;  think  of 
this  creature  understanding  fully  the  character 
of  immortality,  and  what  the  angels  in  heaven 
and  the  imps  of  Satan  are  engaged  in  doing; 
conceive  of  him  grasping  the  infinitudes  of 
time  past,  of  space,  and  of  time  future;  and 
then  regard  him  as  the  animal  he  is  — weak  in 
his  muscles  and  nerves,  erring  in  his  judgments, 
capricious  in  his  emotions,  understanding  not 
even  why  his  heart  beats  automatically  or  his 
eyes  enable  him  to  see,  or  why  he  can  think 
or  the  secret  of  memory.  Such  a  being,  with 
components  so  unbalanced,  would  be  a  mon- 
strosity more  disproportioned  than  an  ant 
surmounted  with  a  human  head.  God  is  wiser 
than  the  agnostic. 

The  conclusions  arrived  at  are  that  certitude 
in  the  evidences  of  Christianity  would  militate 
against  effort  to  accomplish  spiritual  develop- 
[177] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

ment  proportionally  to  their  conclusiveness; 
that  the  demands  of  agnostics  for  more  con- 
vincing testimony  in  support  of  the  tenets  of 
Christianity  are  unscientific  and  founded  on  a 
misapprehension  of  its  basic  principle,  namely, 
that  spirituality  must  be  sought,  the  same  as 
food  for  the  body  and  knowledge  for  the  mind ; 
that  any  Christian  advocate  who  claims  God  has 
revealed,  beyond  doubt  and  the  necessity  of 
endeavor  to  search.  Himself,  His  Son,  the 
Immortality  of  the  Soul,  Rewards  and  Punish- 
ments in  the  Future  Life,  etc.,  does  not  un- 
derstand the  underlying  principles  of  either 
Revelation  or  Christianity;  that  the  Christian 
World  may  regard  with  supreme  indifference 
all  the  attacks  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  Mr. 
Ingersoll,  Professors  Strauss,  Huxley,  etc.,  be- 
cause they  are  demanding  proofs  of  a  religion 
which  its  founder  expressly  ordained  should 
not  be  granted,  by  declaring  it  was  to  be  built 
on  faith;  knowing  that,  if  granted,  its  vital  es- 
sence, its  spirit  would  be  gone,  and  all  the  good 
it  was  intended  to  accomplish  —  namely,  soul 
evolution — would  be  lost  forever;  or  stated 
in  the  converse  form,  the  position  of  Christianity 
as  to  divine  grace  is,  "  Seek  and  ye  shall  find, 
knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you  " ;  and 
finally  that  the  evidences  of  Christianity  are 
perfect  in  quantity  and  quality —  proved  by  the 
present  and  prospectively  advancing  civilization 
[178] 


Evidences  of  Christianity 

of  Christendom, — and  most  intelligently  adapted 
by  an  All-wise  Providence  to  accomplish  their 
end  —  the  growth  of  spirituality  in  man,  and 
consequent  on  that  growth,  his  physical,  mental, 
and  moral  evolution. 


[179] 


THE   CHURCH   OF   CHRIST 

MAN  is  a  social  being.  He  finds  his 
safety,  his  development,  and  his  pleas- 
ures in  intercourse  with  his  fellows.  His  phy- 
sique is  so  weak  in  comparison  to  the  force  of 
gravitation,  he  is  unable  without  assistance 
from  others  to  till  adequately  the  soil,  or  to 
build  enduring  structures,  or  to  provide  even 
for  his  own  necessities.  He  is  compelled  to 
combine  with  persons  in  situations  similar  to 
his  own  to  resist  the  attacks  of  fierce  beasts  and 
bad  men.  Deprived  of  association,  he  is  the 
wild  man  of  the  woods.  The  accomplishment 
of  such  prime  necessities  requires  agreement 
among  the  several  workers,  and  this  agreement 
to  produce  a  desirable  result  for  common  bene- 
fit is  government.  Government  is,  therefore, 
evolutionary.  Now  those  things  a  good  gov- 
ernment accomplishes  for  the  general  advance- 
ment of  its  citizens,  the  Church  of  Christ,  as  to 
spiritual  matters,  performs  for  its  members.  It 
offers  an  organization,  a  concrete  idea  around 
which  its  adherents  may  rally.  Rallying  around 
any  standard  gratifies  the  social  instinct  and 
fascinates.  It  stimulates  enthusiasm  and  action. 
[i8o] 


The  Church  of  Christ 

It  affords  a  field  for  combined  endeavor,  the 
individual  being  spurred  to  the  highest  effort 
in  his  desire  for  approbation  from  others.  Self- 
approbation  if  controlled  by  good  judgment  is 
a  desirable  quality.  The  Church  restrains  un- 
worthy actions  for  fear  of  condemnation  by 
fellow-members  whose  good  opinion  is  cher- 
ished. It  sets  forth  constantly  the  virtues  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  an  example  for  men 
to  imitate,  and  presents  His  death  and  resur- 
rection as  evidences  of  what  He  suffered  for 
them.  It  ever  reminds  the  relapsing  memory  of 
the  great  necessity  for  faith  in  the  Saviour  as 
Mediator  with  God. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  elaborate  minutely  the 
inestimable  moral  precepts  the  Church  of  Christ 
has  been  the  active  agent  in  preaching  to  man- 
kind. If  morality  —  not  morality  practised  as 
a  species  of  speculation  wherein  it  is  mentally 
concluded  that  a  certain  act  will  produce  desira- 
ble results,  but  that  morality  which  has  its  main- 
spring of  action  in  doing  or  not  doing  a  thing 
because  it  will  be  in  obedience  to  the  command 
of  God  —  has  produced  beneficial  results  in  the 
development  of  mankind,  then  the  Church  of 
Christ  as  the  concrete  embodiment  of  that  mo- 
rality has,  in  its  sphere  of  influence,  been  a 
most  potent  agent  in  the  evolution  of  the  altru- 
ism which  distinguishes  Christendom  above  all 
other  parts  of  the  world. 

[i8i] 


THE  SACRAMENTS 

OWING  to  a  limited  range  of  thought  and 
the  necessity  to  gratify  the  same  recur- 
ring necessities  of  his  nature,  almost  all  of  man's 
acts  take  on  the  character  of  habits,  and  these 
habits  are  manifested  constantly  by  the  same 
outward  acts.  In  other  words,  he  does  things 
continually  in  a  practically  identical  manner. 
He  clothes  himself  from  year  to  year  with 
garments  of  like  shapes.  He  moves  about  his 
household  ways  with  each  day  a  repetition  of 
the  preceding.  His  pleasures  and  his  labors 
are  a  combination  of  similar  movements.  This 
general  principle  applies  to  every  department 
of  his  life,. to  his  business,  to  his  government, 
and  to  his  church.  Irrespective  of  a  desire 
to  ignore  all  ritual  he  is  of  necessity  a  ritualist. 
His  religious  services  repeat  themselves  on  Sun- 
day after  Sunday.  His  prayers  are  a  reitera- 
tion of  ideas  worded  in  substantially  similar 
language,  whether  written  or  oral.  He  cannot 
avoid  repetition  if  he  would.  He  has  the  same 
soul  emotions  to  utter,  the  same  wants  and 
thanks  to   offer   to   God,  and   he    has  not  the 

[I82] 


The  Sacraments 

intellectual  capacity  to  vary  their  expression 
indefinitely. 

It  follows  from  these  facts  that  a  Church 
must  have  a  form  of  worship  —  whether  the 
congregation  be  composed  of  Quakers  or  Epis- 
copalians or  Congregationalists. 

But  in  addition  to  the  adoption  by  compul- 
sion of  forms  and  ceremonies  expressive  of  the 
ideas  of  the  worshippers,  there  is  much  inherent 
value  in  transmuting  spiritual  conceptions  into 
symbolical  acts.  Some  minds,  either  by  nature, 
or  from  want  of  education,  or  from  preoccupa- 
tion by  other  subjects,  are  unable  to  expand 
mentally  to  themselves  a  satisfying  worship; 
whereas  when  the  attention  is  attracted  by  some 
fully  expressed  act  of  devotion,  the  visible 
representative  of  a  reverential  idea,  the  religious 
sentiment  is  elevated  and  gratified,  and  drawn 
towards  the  right  direction.  It  goes  farther; 
it  makes  definite  and  intensifies  the  thought; 
it  bestows  part  of  its  own  purity ;  it  gives  grace 
to  the  believing  worshipper. 

Herein  again  by  the  establishment  of  sacra- 
ments is  found  the  superhuman  wisdom  of 
Christ.  Exactly  the  correct  thing  has  been 
done  in  every  point  of  view  to  make  His 
Church  the  most  enduring  evolutionary  moral 
factor  the  world  has  experienced. 

Take  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  —  a 
sacrament  as   to  which  entire    Christendom  is 

[1S3] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

agreed.  Can  any  outward  act  of  worship  be 
more  touching  than  this  divine  institution?  It 
was  founded  at  the  most  earnest  period  of  the 
life  of  our  Lord  —  in  the  midst  of  His  little 
band  of  Disciples  and  on  the  eve  of  His  cruci- 
fixion. If  there  is  a  solemn  moment  in  life,  it 
is  when  we  stand,  in  full  health,  consciously,  on 
the  threshold  of  eternity.  He  brake  bread  and 
poured  out  wine,  and  declared  of  those  who 
should  worthily  partake  of  them  that  He 
would  dwell  in  them  and  they  in.  Him.  It 
is  impossible  to  imagine  a  more  intimate 
communion  of  soul  with  soul  than  was  thus 
established.  What  mortal  mind  would  have 
conceived  of  the  practice  of  such  an  act  for 
the  purpose  of  typifying  the  coalescing  of  the 
soul  of  the  disciple  into  that  of  its  Master? 

It  was  not  to  be  a  secret  worship,  like  individ- 
ual prayer,  but  a  feast,  —  the  gathering  together 
of  disciples,  the  visible  communion  on  equal 
terms  of  all  believers  in  an  act  of  co-eating 
which  more  than  any  other  performance  signifies 
brotherhood.  It  was  to  be  done  reverently,  and 
Christ's  apostle  with  His  usual  bold  denuncia- 
tion of  sin,  pronounced  the  sentence  of  condem- 
nation that  unworthy  partakers  should  eat  and 
drink  to  their  damnation.  Of  all  acts  of  worship, 
it  is  the  culminating  sacrament,  most  powerful 
in  maintaining  the  unity  of  the  Church  —  its 
virility  —  its  dignity  —  its  sacredness. 

[184] 


The  Sacraments 

No  man  can  partake  worthily  of  the  feast, 
mark  well!  worthily,  without  experiencing  an 
inward  spiritual  grace  to  come  over  him  and  to 
possess  his  soul.  And  in  so  far  as  it,  and  it 
alone  of  all  acts  which  man  can  perform,  raises 
him  to  a  sublime  state,  unapproachable  by  all 
other  states,  it  is  the  most  powerfully  unique 
evolutionary  factor  the  moral  world  possesses. 


[185] 


CHRISTIANITY  AN  AID   TO    PHYSICAL 
AND   MENTAL   EVOLUTION 

THE  influence  of  Christianity  as  an  evo- 
lutionary agent  in  the  advancement  of 
the  physical  and  mental  faculties  of  mankind 
although  alluded  to  heretofore  deserves  from  its 
importance  a  rather  more  expanded  considera- 
tion. 

The  religion  of  Christ,  while  inculcating  love 
of  God  and  faith  in  His  own  Messiahship,  also 
teaches  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  to  be 
the  abode  only  of  such  men  as  are  temperate 
in  their  meat  and  drink,  pure  in  their  lives, 
honest  in  their  conduct,  diligent  in  their  respec- 
tive callings,  merciful  and  charitable  with  their 
fellows,  etc. 

Now  the  practice  of  these  cardinal  rules  of 
conduct  has  each  an  immediate  effect  on  the 
physical  well-being  and  development  of  men. 
Intemperance  saps  the  goodness  of  bone  and 
muscle  and  nerve.  Temperance  enables  the  vis 
i}it(2 — the  power  of  life  —  to  appropriate  in  the 
best  manner  the  supply  of  food,  and  correspond- 
ing growth  takes  place.  It  conduces  to  the 
avoidance  of  accidents,  to  long  life,  to  the  health- 
[l86] 


Christianity  an  Aid  to  Mental  Evolution 

fulness  and  rearing  of  progeny,  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  best  results  in  life-work. 

Christianity  enjoins  virtue.  The  reward  of 
virtue  is  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body.  The 
punishment  for  immorality  is  often  tainted  blood, 
childlessness,  a  broken  nervous  system,  insanity, 
etc.  No  mere  whitewashing  of  the  outside  of 
the  temple  of  the  soul  with  foulness  within,  no 
abstaining  from  acts  while  the  tongue  speaks 
and  the  eye  beams  lasciviousness,  is  the  morality 
taught  by  the  Saviour.  His  virtue  reaches  the 
plane  of  sublime  inward  purity. 

He  was  an  uncompromising  advocate  for  the 
sanctity  of  the  marriage  vow.  The  married 
state  is  conducive  to  health,  physical  comfort, 
avoidance  of  unclean  habitation  with  its  micro- 
scopic enemies  to  Hfe.  The  married  state  is  an 
agent  of  peace  in  preventing  wars.  The  married 
state  is  at  the  root  of  the  family  tree,  whose 
broad  limbs  shelter  with  its  shade  and  feed  with 
its  fruits  the  youth  of  the  land  —  making  them 
either  valuable  members  of  society  or  a  curse 
to  their  race. 

"  Be  diligent  "  is  a  motto  of  Christianity,  which 
command,  allied  with  '*  Peace  "  and  *'  Brotherly 
Love,"  contains  all  the  essentials  for  the  suc- 
cessful prosecution  of  commerce,  the  arts,  the 
sciences,  literature,  and  philosophy. 

These  injunctions  practised  by  the  unit  organ- 
isms become  incorporated  in  the  body-politic, 

[187] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

and  government  based  on  such  precepts  of 
Christianity  spreads  its  broad  and  benignant 
aegis  over  all  its  people  aiding  each,  one  and 
all,  in  the  final  evolution  of  a  humanity  physi- 
cally and  mentally  stronger  from  age  to  age. 

It  seems  to  be  supererogation  to  follow  further 
in  detail  the  proximate  results,  on  the  body  and 
mind,  of  obedience  to  the  rules  of  Christian  life. 
There  is  not  one  precept,  but  the  legitimate 
effect  of  which  is  increased  physical  and  mental 
well-being.  The  religion  of  Christ  meets  every 
demand  of  the  highest  civilization.  More  yet, 
it  has  a  reserve  of  ideals  which  has  never  been 
equalled  and  will  serve  as  a  moral  code  for  a 
millennium. 

Practically  everything  great,  ever)^thing  val- 
uable, everything  ennobling  the  world  pos- 
sesses to-day  is  the  product  of  Christendom. 
Are  not  these  facts,  where  there  is  no  chance, 
but  only  ordained  laws,  a  most  convincing  testi- 
mony of  the  value  of  Christianity  to  physical 
and  mental  development?  Are  they  not  the 
strongest  proof  of  its  evolutionary  character? 
And  if  they  are,  and  evolution  as  to  the  body 
and  mind  be  conceded  to  be  a  law  of  an  all- 
wise  God,  Christianity,  because  of  the  powerful 
influence  it  has  exerted  in  evolving  mankind  to 
its  present  high  physical  and  mental  state,  must 
be  ranked  in  the  same  category,  namely,  as  the 
direct  and  immediate  work  of  the  same  Creator. 
[188] 


Christianity  an  Aid  to  Mental  Evolution 

In  other  words,  all  evolution  must  be  denied  as 
the  law  of  Divine  Creation,  or  Christianity  must 
be  included;  or  to  state  the  proposition  in 
another  way,  there  can  be  no  God,  and  this 
wonderful  Cosmos  with  its  intricate  and  har- 
monious laws,  its  adaptation  to  environments  and 
developments  of  life,  its  beauty,  its  sublimity, 
its  love,  must  all  have  been  the  work  of  chance 
—  blind  chance  (and  where  has  chance  pro- 
duced sequence  or  law  or  order?)  —  or  else 
Christianity,  and  all  that  the  sacred  word  implies, 
is  among  the  absolute  facts  and  verities  of  this 
Cosmos  ordained  by  a  loving  and  omnipotent 
Father  and  God. 


[189] 


MISSIONS 

IF  Christianity  has  within  itself  the  inherent 
power  to  cause  men  to  evolve  into  higher 
states  of  humanity,  it  would  lack  in  the  full  and 
practical  application  of  its  own  principles  if  it 
did  not  teach  the  extension  of  its  blessings  to 
all  mankind.  It  is  claimed  in  this  treatise,  its 
Divine  Founder  left  no  essential  provision  for  its 
successful  practice  untouched,  and  as  an  example 
of  the  perfectness  of  His  religion  He  com- 
manded all  His  disciples,  for  all  time,  to  carry 
His  Gospel  to  all  nations.  This  is  in  exact 
accord  with  His  great  generalization  of  the  Law 
and  the  Prophets,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and  great 
commandment.  And  the  second  is  like  unto  it ; 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  Any 
less  altruism  than  that  which  includes  the  whole 
of  mankind  would,  in  a  purely  rational  consid- 
eration and  practice  of  Christianity,  have  been  a 
very  great  imperfection. 

[  190] 


Missions 

There  have  been  enumerated  some  of  its  bless- 
ings to  the  individual  soul,  to  the  family,  to  the 
neighborhood,  to  each  little  body  of  Christians 
worshipping  under  the  same  roof,  to  the  State,  to 
communities  of  Christian  States,  but  Christianity 
is  broader  than  all  of  these.  Its  evolutionary 
power  takes  in  the  whole  brotherhood  of  man 
wherever  he  is  found.  Its  love  is  as  boundless 
and  as  free  as  the  air.  The  love  of  God  and  of 
the  Saviour  are  the  only  possessions  men  are 
willing  to  share  with  their  neighbors.  How 
marvellous  this  fact !  It  matters  not  how  rich  a 
Croesus  may  grow,  he  is  jealous  of  his  friend's 
wealth  if  it  approaches  in  amount  to  his  own. 
Statesmen,  jurists,  medical  men,  and  the  whole 
class  of  worldly  workers  look  with  displeasure  on 
the  growing  reputations  of  their  rivals.  Even 
children  watch  with  envy  a  mother's  love  for 
their  brethren.  But  when  a  soul  becomes  im- 
bued with  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  it  does  not 
seek  to  secure  exclusively  the  divine  love  for 
itself,  or  to  render  heaven  tenantless  except  with 
its  own  kindred  ;  but  instantly  it  takes  on  the 
character  of  universal  love,  and  an  earnest  and 
supreme  desire  possesses  and  fills  its  whole  being 
that  all  men  should  enjoy  equally  with  itself 
the  blessed  privileges  of  a  blissful  immortality, 
and  share  alike  with  it  the  love  of  a  Heavenly 
Father. 

If  the  temperance,  the  peace,  and  the  charity 

[191] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

Christianity  teaches  tend  to  the  development  of 
mankind,  then  the  express  command  to  take 
these  virtues  to  every  square  mile  of  the  earth's 
surface  is  another  expression  of  its  complete 
evolutionary  character. 


[  192] 


THE   FUTURE   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

IF  the  highest  evolution  of  humanity  is  to  be 
found,  as  heretofore  shown,  in  the  symmet- 
rical development  of  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
attributes;  and  if  the  most  efficient  morality 
(not  a  morality  which  does  a  seemingly  good  act 
because  it  will  bring  the  doer  a  personal  benefit, 
but  a  morality  having  its  source  in  a  desire  to 
conform  conduct  to  the  commandments  of  the 
Supreme  Deity)  may  be  formulated  as  obedi- 
ence to  the  precepts  to  love  God  with  all  the 
soul,  and  our  neighbors  as  ourselves,  then  Chris- 
tianity, which  is  the  living  and  uncompromising 
exponent  of  this  morality,  presents  a  system  of 
moral  laws  beyond  which  there  is  nothing  con- 
ceivably better  or  higher. 

It  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  more  ennobling 
motive  for  obedience  than  love  for  and  conform- 
ity to  the  will  of  the  Being  who  made  the  mil- 
lions of  worlds  revolving  in  space  —  a  Being  all 
powerful,  all  wise,  all  holy,  and  all  loving. 

When  men  shall  come  to  love  their  neighbors 
as  themselves,  murder  and  theft,  slander  and 
adultery  and  covetousness  will  all  have  ceased 
^3  [  193  ] 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

to   exist,  and    universal   honor   and    peace  will 
abide  in  the  heart  of  humanity. 

These  are  the  ends  Christianity  has  set  for  the 
complete  development  of  mankind  —  this  is  the 
goal,  and  none  other;  and  inasmuch  as  there 
can  be  no  loftier  or  more  complex  evolution 
than  is  represented  by  these  attainments,  and  as 
evolution  will  endure,  if  the  history  of  the  past 
is  a  prophet  of  the  future,  it  follows  that  Chris- 
tianity must  continue  to  be  an  agent  of  Evo- 
lution; and  as  it  represents  the  highest  and 
noblest  principles  the  mind  of  man  can  conceive, 
it  is  impossible,  on  any  reasonable  grounds,  to 
conclude  either  how  Christianity  can  cease  to 
exist,  or  how  it  can  be  superseded  by  another 
and  better  system  of  religion. 


[  '94] 


CONCLUSION 

THE  broad  generalization  of  the  arguments 
presented  in  the  foregoing  pages  is  —  in- 
asmuch as  man  reaches  his  highest  development 
in  the  correlated  and  balanced  growth  of  his 
physical,  mental,  and  moral  faculties,  and  as 
Christianity  has  been  a  direct  and  the  most  effi- 
cient factor  known  in  the  history  of  mankind 
contributing  to  his  moral  advancement,  and  inci- 
dentally to  his  bodily  and  intellectual  progress 
—  that  the  Religion  established  by  Jesus  Christ 
is  entitled  to  be  considered  and  actually  is  in  its 
sphere  of  influence,  as  evolutionary  as  either  nat- 
ural selection,  the  effect  of  use  or  disuse  of  parts 
on  organisms,  or  the  inheritance  by  progeny  of 
desirable  structures  or  physiological  functions. 

If  this  proposition  be  granted,  and  it  is  not 
perceived  how  it  can  fairly  be  denied,  when  it  is 
borne  in  mind  that  only  Christian  countries  have 
advanced  splendidly  in  civilization,  and  if  it  is 
further  believed  that  nature  with  its  harmonies 
of  laws,  its  correlation  of  matter  and  force,  its 
beauty  of  phenomena,  and  its  development  of 
life  is  not  the  product  of  chance,  but  the  work 
of  an  all-wise  and  all-powerful  Creator,  then  it 
['95  1 


Agreement  of  Evolution  and  Christianity 

follows  immediately  and  legitimately  that  Chris- 
tianity has  been  ordained  and  established  by 
Almighty  God. 

Again,  if  this  last  conclusion  be  accepted,  and 
no  such  world-compelling  power  could  have 
flourished  without  the  cognizance  of  a  Supreme 
Being,  who  has  given  so  much  attention  to  both 
the  grandest  and  minutest  laws  and  phenomena 
of  the  universe,  then  Christianity  —  because  it 
controls  in  the  most  potent  manner  man's  inter- 
course with  man,  modifying  his  natural  savagery, 
advancing  truth  and  virtue,  temperance  and 
honesty,  charity  and  love,  and  thus  aids  his 
bodily  and  mental  progress  —  must  be  consid- 
ered as  regards  the  Evolution  of  Mankind  as 
much  a  Science  in  its  principles  and  an  Art  in  its 
application  as  any  division  of  Physics.  This  is 
the  resultant  thought  of  this  book,  namely, 
Christianity  is  a  Science  established  by  God  to 
suit  the  exigencies  of  its  field  of  operation,  and 
is  to  be  classed  with  all  the  other  sciences  and 
agencies  He  has  ordained  for  the  Evolution  of 
His  Creation. 

When  this  proposition,  and  all  implied  by  it,  is 
fully  comprehended,  then  Christianity  will  be 
viewed  in  its  true  light,  and  the  agnostic  scien- 
tist will  recognize  that  the  most  efficient  means 
have  been  employed  to  evolve  the  highest  unit 
of  creation,  the  Christian  will  learn  that  nature 
and  its  laws  hold  nothing  to  be  feared  as  antag- 
[  >96  J 


Conclusion 

onistic  to  his  consolin^c^  and  ennobling  faith  — 
then  too  may  they  approach  with  hand  extended 
to  hand,  each  convinced  from  his  distinct  line  of 
reasoning  that  the  Religion  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  must  of  necessity  be  Divine. 


[  197] 


THE    TESTIMONY   OF   REASON 

By  Samuel  Louis  Phillips, 

A.  B.  {^Princeton). 

Zion's  Herald.  —  The  author  writes  mainly  for 
students  of  science  who  have  rejected  the  doctrines 
of  the  orthodox  churches.  He  seeks  to  establish  the 
probability  of  the  most  important  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity by  purely  rational  considerations  from  facts, 
so  that  doubters  may  be  led  to  recognize  the  real 
strength  of  the  Christian  position,  and  yield  them- 
selves to  the  glorifying  faith  in  the  Saviour  of  man- 
kind.    It  is  a  most  excellent  aim. 

Courier-Journal,  Louisville.  —  An  argument 
founded  upon  known  facts  and  known  laws  for 
the  Christian  religion.  It  is  written  with  profound 
earnestness  and  clear  logic.  Its  elevated  and  in- 
spiring sentiments  should  have  a  wide  circulation. 

The  Sunny  South,  Atlanta,  Ga.  —  The  object  of 
the  author  is  sensibly  stated,  and  is  to  meet  the 
negatives  of  scientific  agnostics  with  facts  out  of  their 
own  data,  which  prove  their  know-nothingisms  palpably 
inconsistent.  Upon  the  salient  propositions  of  the- 
ology, pure  and  simple,  Mr.  Phillips  presents  fairly 
the  attitude  of  those  who  doubt,  deny,  or  ''don't 
know  "  what  Christians  in  common  believe.     He  ex- 

[  199  ] 


The  Testimony  of  Reason 

amines  the  grounds  of  their  unbelief,  or  faith  inertia, 
and  answers  them  with  the  logic  of  facts  and  theories 
that  they  profess  to  be  scientifically  true  and  tenable. 

A  reading  of  "  The  Testimony  of  Reason  "  will  en- 
force the  conclusion  that  what  is  popularly  known  as 
"scientific  doubt  "  in  the  field  of  theological  knowl- 
edge is  no  more  than  self-imposed  ignorance  by  the 
refusal  of  knowledge. 

.  .  .  expert,  cogent,  and  convincing  to  those  who 
have  enough  of  both  theological  and  scientific  infor- 
mation to  follow  his  arguments. 

The  Gazette,  Terre  Haute,  Ind.  —  Believers  in 
the  Christian  religion  will  find  much  to  gratify  and 
satisfy  them  in  this  admirable  little  book. 

Times-Union,  Albany,  N.  Y.  —  This  is  a  book 
which  is  good  to  read  and  profitable  to  remember. 
In  it  the  writer  endeavors  to  prove  the  truth  of  the 
Bible  in  its  entirety,  and  argues  scientists,  atheists, 
agnostics,  and  pantheists  on  their  own  grounds.  His 
quiet  earnestness  is  convincing,  and  his  knowledge  is 
not  limited  to  the  usual  refutations  of  his  opponents' 
points.  He  advances  new  thoughts  from  an  opti- 
mistic viewpoint,  and  stands  firm  for  the  "  glorifying 
and  ennobling "  Christian  faith.  His  principles  of 
belief  are  clearly  and  concisely  presented,  and  the 
work  is  full  of  cheer  and  encouragement. 

The  Buffalo  Courier ;  Gazette,  Montreal,  Canada. — 
This  volume  seeks  to  combat  with  "  arguments  founded 
upon  known  facts  and  known  laws,"  the  representa- 
tions  of  agnostics  and   scientists,  who  dispute  the 
[  200  ] 


The  Testimony  of  Reason 

commonly  accepted  Christian  religion.  Rather  a 
clever  defence  of  Christianity  from  a  somewhat  origi- 
nal standpoint. 

Courant,  Hartford,  Conn. ;  Baltimore  American. 

—  The  purpose  of  "The  Testimony  of  Reason,"  by 
Samuel  L.  Phillips,  cannot  be  too  highly  commended 
as  an  effort  to  meet  the  objectors  to  religious  truths 
on  the  grounds  of  fair  deduction  and  unprejudiced  de- 
bate. Mr.  Phillips  believes  that  these  opponents  can 
be  "  made  to  see  .  .  .  that  many  of  the  important 
truths  of  Christianity  can  be  established  to  a  high 
degree  of  probability  by  purely  rational  considerations 
from  facts  in  whose  truth  they  firmly  beUeve,"  and 
that  thus  they  may  be  brought  into  a  more  receptive 
frame  of  mind  for  further  argument. 

Oregonian,  Portland,  Ore.  —  The  book  will  doubt- 
less prove  a  comfort  to  many  that  have  been  dis- 
quieted by  vague  rumors  of  attacks  on  religion  by 
science. 

Savannah  Morning  News.  —  An  interesting  and 
valuable  little  book. 

Times  Democrat,  New  Orleans,  La. — Mr.  Phillips's 
little  treatise  upon  the  testimony  of  reason,  whefi  ap- 
plied to  the  principles  of  revealed  religion,  is  the  out- 
come of  a  conviction  that  more  attention  should  be 
given  by  the  representatives  of  the  Christian  church 
to  arguments  founded  upon  known  facts  and  known 
laws;  that  the  scientist  and  agnostic  should  be  ap- 
proached upon  their  own  battle-ground,  their  weapons 
[201   ] 


The  Testimony  of  Reason 

seized,  and  the  fight  waged  with  arguments  from  na- 
ture against  arguments  from  nature.  He  has  there- 
fore examined  briefly  the  position  taken  by  the  atheist, 
the  agnostic,  and  the  pantheist,  and  shown  why,  in 
his  opinion,  they  are,  one  and  all,  untenable.  Mr. 
Phillips's  arguments  .  .  .  are  well  put,  and  they  have 
never,  as  he  says,  been  satisfactorily  answered. 

Buffalo  Sunday  News. — The  argument  ...  is 
well  carried  forward  and  the  evidences  in  human  con- 
sciousness in  verification  of  the  claims  of  faith  are 
skilfully  marshalled. 

The  Presbyterian.  —  In  the  fulfilment  of  its  pur- 
pose it  will  doubtless  prove  helpful  to  many  a  strug- 
gling soul. 

The  Times,  Pittsburg,  Pa.  —  The  author  believes 
truth  and  nature  to  be  one  and  harmonious,  and  that 
Christianity  is  truth.  He  has  advanced  some  strong 
arguments  in  support  of  his  faith. 


"THE   TESTIMONY   OF   REASON" 

Cloth,  pp.  ii6,  Price  30  cents.    The  Phillips  Com- 
pany, 330  John  Marshall  Place,  Washington,  D.C. 
1904. 


[  202  ] 


14  DAY  USE 

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